Harry Potter & The Rock of Ages
by Metal Dragoon
Summary: AU. It's Harry's fifth year, and trouble once more rears its ugly head at Hogwarts. Dumbledore has contacted an American wizard to fill the once more vacant DADA job, while providing security for the castle. discontinued as is; being reinvented
1. What Dreams May Come

"AAA"-normal speech

"_AAA_"- dragon speech

-AAA- reading

Chapter 1- What Dreams May Come

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, sighed as he looked around his dreamscape. It was the same as last night, a blank, black expanse that stretched as far as the eye could see. He waited for a moment, waiting for the graveyard to appear and for Cedric Diggory's death to be played out in his head, like it had been for the entire summer. But it never came. Instead, there came a voice.

"Have you found him yet brother?" a woman's voice came to his ears. A male voice, answered her, sounding a bit angry.

"Yeah, yeah, I got the connection. Keep your shirt on." And then as if whoever was speaking was muttering under their breath, "For all our sakes." There was the sound of a slap. "Owww," the man's voice whined. There was a quality to the man's voice that somehow reminded Harry of Fred and George. Pure, undiluted mischief seemed to make up its depths and width. Suddenly, Harry found himself on a dusty plain, with mesas rising in the distance. Harry looked around uneasily, before spinning round at the sound of the man's voice. Instead of a man, he came face to face with a…dog?

"Lissen, kid, I aint got much time. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. I," the canine indicated himself with a paw, "Am the spirit known as Coyote. And you," he pointed to Harry, "Are one of seven avatars representing the fundamental forces that compose the universe." Harry just stared at him for a moment, and asked the first thing that came to mind.

"What's an avatar?" Coyote looked at him for a moment, before shaking his head in despair.

"I _really_ hope the others are having better luck with this than I am!" he moaned to himself. "I'm sorry kid, I can't give you all the specifics. You know how it is with Visions and Prophecies right, vague enough to be mind numbingly exasperating, and specific enough to be useful. All I can tell you is that you're connected to a very powerful creature, as are six others."

"What kind of creatures?" Harry asked, growing interested despite himself. This Coyote was certainly a pleasant change from the usual mien of nightmares that he experienced over the summer holiday at least. And he didn't seem to be anything that Voldemort would employ, even in passing. Coyote looked as if he were about to answer, but stopped suddenly.

"Sorry kid, it aint my place to tell. But anyways, you and these other six are connected to these powers. Some of my brothers and sisters are attempting to contact the other five that don't know, the seventh has known about this whole thing for a while." As he spoke, the mesas around them began to erode away. "Sorry kid, I gotta go, the connection's fading." As he said this, he slowly faded out of existence. But before he was totally gone, Coyote tossed something to Harry. "Keep it with ya kid, you'll need it soon. Oh, and one last thing. Some of the most powerful allies in the fight you've been tapped to enter are closer than you realize."

Harry caught the cord and looped it around his wrist before taking a closer look at the item. It was a small gold pendant shaped like a sun with eight spokes, made to look like rays radiating from the center. Harry sat up in bed, and reached for his glasses. As he did, he felt something shift around his wrist. He blinked owlishly at the small pendant, cord wrapped around his wrist before he looked at the digital watch that had belonged to Dudley before his wrist had grown to fat for the strap to fit around. It was around twelve-thirty in the morning. In her cage, Hedwig hooted softly, watching her master with bright yellow eyes. Harry gave her a blurry-eyed look of long-suffering.

"Well girl, looks like it's started again already."

Hedwig merely hooted once more.

Meanwhile, at Malfoy Manor, Draco Malfoy was experiencing something similar to his arch-enemy's current predicament. He was currently sitting on a rock ledge in his dream, chewing over all of the information he had just received, basically the same thing Harry had heard. Next to him perched a large mountain lion. "And you say that there are six others?" he was saying. The cat nodded before speaking. His voice was deep and serious.

"Yes, but I must tell you this. Do not let past perceptions and false impressions color your interactions with them. You must cast aside your pride and allow yourself to work with them lest your fathers master triumph." Draco scowled at the mention of his father, but the scowl deepened even further when he thought about the fact that he might have to work with his most hated enemies, if he understood what the cat was saying.

Mountain Lion gave a small feline smile, reading his young acquaintance's mood. "Ah, you feel that they are beneath you?" he questioned. Draco scowled once more, before assuming an arrogant attitude.

"Of course they are! Everyone are beneath the Malfoy's!" The large cat's grin quickly faded, to be replaced by a grim look.

"That is pride cub. That can be a dangerous thing." Draco just cocked an eyebrow and looked at the spirit. His look said, 'Hello pot, have you met the kettle?'.

Mountain Lion's tail lashed the air as he got up and prowled along the ledge, and Draco silently tacked another point to him self on his ever-present scoreboard of him vs. the world, repressing his satisfied grin at getting a rise out the pompous seeming creature. However he lost his sense of accomplishment when the big cat's voice lashed out at him with all the venom of Prof. Snape at his worst, covering a sheet of solid steel.

"Don't give me that look cub; there is more than one type of pride. There is pride in yourself, in what you have accomplished, pride in your family, pride in your friends. These are all types of pride that can help a cub such as yourself in The Great Journey. But there are also prides that can trip you up along The Journey. Pride in a station you did nothing to achieve, but were born into; pride in causing another harm, pride in doing something that you know to be wrong, even if it is only subconsciously." As the large cat finished, Draco's mood turned somber.

Suddenly Mountain Lion turned and looked towards the top of the horizontal cliff the ledge they were sitting on was situated on. A dust cloud was skidding its way down the cliff face towards them. As it hit the ledge, the cloud formed into a panting Coyote. "Damn it ML, why do ya gotta have all of your dreamscapes so damn impassible?!" Draco looked at the canine for a moment, before looking at Mountain Lion, who was looking slightly worried.

"What is it Brother?"

"I just checked in with the others. They can't find their assigned targets. Apparently yours," he indicated Draco with a toss of his head, provoking another scowl from Draco, " and mine were the only ones we were able to contact. Even _Fox_ couldn't find her target! And our window of opportunity is closing fast. There's no tellin' when the big idiot could come back and find we've left the Rock unguarded. So give him the pendant and let's hightail it out of here! We'll stop at Golem's place and give the rest of the pendants to his avatar to give to the unclaimed elementals to give to their avatars."

All of this was said in a rather fast, breathless voice. ML nodded, signifying that he understood the urgency in his canine brother's tone. The dreamscape around the three beings began to melt away. As it did, Mountain Lion went up to Draco and nuzzled against the boy's arms like a giant house cat. As he did so, Draco felt something loop around his wrist. As the final traces of the dream faded and Draco woke up.

He found himself clutching a pendant, much like the one Harry had received. But instead of a golden sun, his consisted of a single smooth disk of obsidian, with not a single mark upon it. Even so, it felt peculiarly heavy for such a small disk of stone. He looked at the grandfather clock opposite his bed and noted the time. Nearly two in the morning.

Nearly on the other side of the world, a man in his mid-twenties sat up from a nap he had been taking. He looked at the four pendants he now clutched in his hand, and rusty, reddish-brown eyes became clouded with worry. Instinctively his other hand went to the pendant around his own neck. It was made of copper, and shaped like a mountain peak. After a moment his hand dropped, before he ran it through his mess of muddy brown hair. "Aw crap on stick!" he muttered to himself as he got up and went to a window.

From there, he looked out on his vast property, a small Colorado ranch with a small lake and a moderate forest, almost a copse of trees, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. It was just going on night here. Silently he noted the criss-cross of what looked like tunnels a mole would make all over his property. Except that this particular mole was ten feet long, fifteen if you included his tail, the man noted with a small smile. He leaned out the window and yelled, "_HEY_ _NEEDLE NOGGIN!!!_" into the large hole right beneath his window.

The noise echoed for a moment before something began to happen. There was a rumbling, which grew steadily louder. Eventually two eyes were visible in the darkness, glowing slightly within the recesses of the tunnel. After a few seconds a spiky looking snout popped out of the hole, followed by the rest of the head. The beast's neck was virtually nonexistent, it's shoulders beginning almost immediately.

It was a Golem dragon, a rock dragon that was merely a legend to most of the wizarding world, mentioned in ancient stories as a beast of great power that was slow to anger, but once its ire was roused, it came down on the perpetrator of the evil done to it with the force of an erupting volcano and the speed of a raging avalanche. The dragon began to grunt and growl, but to the man it sounded like a gruff, earthy voice.

"_Whadda ya need Shawn_?" Apparently, being made almost entirely of rock had the effect of making his personality a little rough around the edges. The man, Shawn, shrugged it off, having known the rock lizard for years.

"I need you to give these to the others. I don't think you need to tell them not to lose them." As he spoke, Shawn handed over the pendants in his hand to the dragon. Golem responded by hoisting himself out of his tunnel, before gathering the four pendants in his huge rough 'hand'. He then turned and began to lumber in the direction of the lake and forest. Shawn watched him go; still marveling at the impression of indomitable power he still got from his friend, even after knowing him all these years.

The dragon stood on his hind legs when out of the tunnels, and towered over most of the mundane objects he passed. Golem, being a ground dwelling dragon, possessed no wings. Instead his back was covered by rocky spikes, which stuck out every which way. These spikes were even present along his short neck and the back of his skull. Strangely enough, he had a single row of spikes amid the rest of the disordered ones, with one midway along his back that stuck out farther than the rest. It was also thicker than the others and sometimes, when Golem was digging near the surface, it almost looked like he was a land-shark on the prowl. His arms were compact and solid, with broad sharp claws that could tear through flesh as easily as they did through rock and soil. His back legs were thick as well; and heavily muscled from pushing himself forward through the rock and soil at furious paces. His eyes were, strangely enough, the exact shade of Shawn's eyes, and permanently narrowed from a lifetime of pushing through dirt while keeping an eye out for an odd trinket or shiny gem to add to his little collection of subterranean discoveries. Alongside all of this natural intimidation material was his armored hide, thick as a slab of granite and tougher than steel, making him a tank on two legs.

As Shawn watched his old friend go, a crackle from his fireplace made his hair stand on end. A brief tune, like that of a doorbell, wafted through the flames, before a grizzled, salt-and-pepper head appeared. The old Native American man who owned said head cast around for a micro-second, before sky-blue eyes locked onto the house's owner. Without even a by-your-leave, he hefted himself through, and was glaring at the younger man from a diminutive, but still somehow imposing, five foot four. Shawn nonchalantly pulled a beer and a Corona out of the fridge, tossing the beer to the older man. His tone was dry when he spoke.

"Hello Boss, pleasure to see you too, come right in and make yourself at home."

The man ignored the pleasantries as he removed the top of his bottle, with his teeth, and spat it into the garbage can with pinpoint accuracy. After a quick swig he looked levelly at the younger man, before speaking. "O'Reilly, you're going to England."

Shawn cocked a brow. "Do tell. And what prompted this Tomahawk?" The old man took another, deeper, swig of his beer, before answering.

"The entire f#$ing Seer and Psychic Wing walking into my office, the Head Spook grabbing me by the lapels, shaking me like a freaking rag doll and swearing that either you go to England and "take the flea-bitten mongrel with you" or they were _all_ gonna quit. On the spot. _That's_ what happened." Shawn made a wry face.

"Eeesh, sorry I asked then." "Tomahawk" shook his head as he drained the last of the Corona.

"Be that as it may, I'm hereby putting you on special assignment. I'll take care of the paperwork that's needed," the old man shuddered at the thought, "You just get there as fast as possible with those oversized suitcases of yours." Though the words were anything but, the tone was that of a superior officer giving one of his men a direct order. Shawn snapped a crisp salute, which would have been impressive if not for the beer in his hand. Tomahawk just shook his head and turned back to the fireplace, when Shawn cleared his throat.

"Um, Boss?" The old man looked at him over his shoulder, and raised one brow. "About my team…"

"They'll be placed with separate strike teams in need of fill-in's or field commanders. But should the situation call for it I'll have them shipped over to watch your six." Shawn nodded, relief clearly written in his face.

As Tomahawk left Shawn returned to the task that had sent him to dreamland about half an hour ago. He picked up the letter and scanned it once more. It was written in green ink and at the top, was a crest with four animals; a badger, a hawk, a snake, and a lion.

-Dear Mr. O'Reily,

I am writing you to ask for you to come to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in order to fill the position of Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. I am aware of your peculiarities and am prepared to allow you to bring what you wish, and give you near free reign in teaching the students, provided it is approved by the Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall first. Also, I wish to enquire as to whether it may be possible to bring your companions with you in order to provide added security for Hogwarts. I fear Voldemort is on the move once more and is planning something terrible. Please send your owl back within a week so that I may begin preparations of adequate lodgings for your companions.

Sincerely yours,

Albus Dumbledore-

Shawn ignored the whole Order of Merlin stuff and looked at the letter for a moment longer. He had been disinclined to acquiesce to the Headmasters request, but now he was being ordered to go. Something big was coming; apparently the Spirits had decided his presence was vital.

Plus he wanted to make sure there were as few casualties as possible in whatever was going on. He was soft that way. He looked over at Major, a Frost eagle that he had "liberated" from some poachers quite a few years ago. Almost as long-lived as phoenixes or mini-rocs, and just as intelligent as either.

The great silver bird ruffled his wings for a moment, the dog-tags around his neck tinkling merrily. Idly scratching his feathered friend behind one of the two tufts that grew from the back of his head, Shawn took a cheap bic from his pocket and quickly scrawled a reply.

-Professor,

I'll take the job, both of them. Don't bother with providing shelter, one of my guys is _more_ than capable of creating a temporary home for the entire group. I'll try and be there before school starts, but, knowing me, I'll end up late, so expect me there about the same time the kids get there. I can guarantee that we'll all be there by the time the feast begins. And don't worry about my normal job, I've already been given leave to go.

Your new DADA Prof,

Shawn O'Reily-

Shawn stuffed the short letter into an envelope, before attaching it to Major's leg. "Take this to Hogwarts buddy," Shawn ordered. The eagle clacked his beak a few times, before taking off into the night sky. Shawn smiled as he watched him fade into the night. 'Watch out Hogwarts,' he thought mischievously, 'the Yankee's are coming, and you won't know what hit ya.'


	2. The Burrow and A Truce

Harry Potter and The Rock of Ages

Hey folks, here's the next chapter of my newest creation. _MAN_, this is a popular story. crickets chirp in the background For anyone that doesn't know me, that was sarcasm. Anywho, onto review replies, what few reviews I've gotten anyway.

AN: Hey folks I've got a co-author now! Say hello to my good friend, Animeluvr1! The chapters should be coming a bit faster now with her providing ideas for me to use in my fics. Also, things aren't going to be that canon in my story. Some of the stuff I use might offend the fans of the fifth book, but to these people I say: "Tough it out and you may end up liking it." One last thing, I'm not going to include Luna Lovegood in my fic. She's just to off the wall, even for **_ME_**!

LW-Actually, it's more of a changing perspective than anything, from one person to the next.

Warconq-Well…this story isn't as mature as you think, at least not right now. Heh, Shawn's my flagship character, I'll find a way to weasel him into just about every story I write. And who hasn't read at least the first book? Wow, that's a lot of praise. Thanks. A _lot_.

Moezy Chan- Sorry, but Shawn won't actually _be_ in this chapter, although we get a good look at some of his background.

Animeluvr1-Well, I'll see what I can do for you in that respect. I sincerely hope that both of my stories turn out equally good.

KyLewin- Hey, it's not as far fetched as it sounds. After all, Malfoy is one of the people who would go by the old adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Disclaimer- Some people follow their dreams. Others chase them down and mercilessly beat them into submission.

"AAA": normal speech

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"AAA": dragon speech

-AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Chapter 2- The Burrow and A Truce

Harry wiped the hair out of his eyes, smiling as he looked at the Burrow. The Weasly's were once again hosting Harry for the remainder of the summer break, and Charlie, on a visit from Romania, had been the one to pick him up. A friend of Mr. Weasly's in the Portkey department had agreed to provide him with a two-time use timed portkey, after he had called in a few favors. While he and Harry had been waiting for the portkey to activate again Charlie had apparated most of Harry's school things to the Burrow, excepting Hedwig, who had taken flight after Harry had explained where he was going to her. The Dursley's, after remembering their last encounter with the Weasly family, had barricaded themselves in their bedrooms almost as soon as Mrs. Dursley had opened the door and taken in Charlie's "strange" clothing.

Suddenly, a red haired blur shot out of the house, and tackled Harry in a huge bear hug. "HARRY!" the blur shouted, revealing it to be Harry's best friend, Ron Weasly. Harry laughed at first, but after a few seconds, he began to realize that Ron had gotten a bit stronger over the summer. After a few more seconds, in which Charlie had gone on ahead of the two friends, Harry was tugging desperately on Ron's sleeve. "What is it Harry?" Ron asked, oblivious to his friends discomfort. Harry pointed to his throat and gasped.

"**_AIR_**!!" Ron hurriedly let go, and laughed nervously.

"Sorry mate, I guess I just don't know my own strength anymore." After a few deep breaths, Harry began to laugh with him. Later that night, after unpacking, Harry sat down to dinner with the Weasly's. Everyone was there, with the exception of Percy. When Harry asked about it, Ron's face darkened. "He and Dad had a falling out. Now he literally lives in his little office."

"What happened?" Harry asked, a little concerned. Ron looked to his father for answers. The Weasly patriarch sighed and sat down his fork.

"Ever since Dumbledore announced…_His _return last year, the Ministry has divided into two factions. Those that believe Dumbledore, and those that don't believe him. Unfortunately, Percy doesn't believe Dumbledore, while I do. And now things are becoming even more tense," he added. The entire family looked at him, puzzled.

"How come dad?" Fred asked. Or maybe it was George.

"Because of the new DADA teacher. Dumbledore has asked an American to come and teach, as well as provide extra security for the school. And _that_," Mr. Weasly said, holding up a finger, "Is what has the Ministry so upset right now. Fudge feels that Dumbledore doesn't trust him enough to provide security for the school. And," he continued, "The wizard he's chosen is a bit…eccentric. But he's the undisputed master of his field."

"What field is that dear?" Mrs. Weasly asked. Her husband gave her a small smile.

"It's a very obscure branch of magic called "martial magic". As I understand, it combines the martial arts with wandless magic somehow. When I asked Moody about it, he told me that it's a very difficult skill to fully master." Charlie looked at his father.

"What's this guy's name dad?" The rest of the family nodded.

"Yeah dad, maybe we've heard of him," Fred chimed in.

"His name is Shawn O'Reily. A very odd character, but he's held in high regard by his uncle, who holds a position in the American ministry, in the…muggle applications research and development department, if I remember right. From what I've heard, his uncle knows Dumbledore, and was the one to suggest him for the job." Charlie's fork clattered onto his plate. His mouth was hanging open, and he was a bit bug-eyed.

"D-did you say Shawn O'_Reily_?!" he asked excitedly. His father nodded. Charlie beamed at his brothers and sister, and their guest. "You're all in for a _real_ treat when you get to Hogwarts then. I once heard O'Reily speak at a seminar on dragon raising. The man has some theories on dragon intelligence that had quite a few of the wizards there calling him insane. He was pleasant enough about it though, just packed up and left." Charlie chuckled then. "Off course, after he left, the wizards that had been calling him insane found some rather fresh piles of dragon manure on each of their beds." He laughed lightly, "By then O'Reily was looong gone." At the end of the narration, Fred and George were looking at each other and grinning wickedly. Ginny was looking rather worried, while Harry and Ron just plain grinned.

"He sounds a bit like the twins, doesn't he Harry?" Ron asked his friend. Harry shook his head.

"No," he declared, "the twins are much, _much_ worse than he sounds." Fred and George bowed to Harry from their seats.

"Why _thank_ you Harry," Fred said in grand tones.

"You're _to_ kind," George added. Mrs. Weasly clapped her hands, bringing the two to a stop. She glared at the boys, but it wasn't a very fierce glare.

"That's enough of that boys. Now come on, help me and Ginny clear the table." All of the boys, including Harry, pitched in, and soon the table was clear. Fred and George retreated to their room, for a 'tactics planning session'. Basically that meant that they were going to see exactly how they could use the information that their new DADA teacher was a prankster to their advantage. Ron and Harry settled down to a game of wizard's chess up in Ron's room under Hedwig's watchful eye, while Ginny helped her mother with the last of the dishes.

"So," Ron said as he made his opening move, "have you heard anything from Sirius?" Harry shook his head as he moved his pawn to counter Ron's.

"The last letter I got from him was two weeks ago. All he said in it was 'I'll see you at school.'" Ron moved another piece, then looked at Harry.

"You don't think he's actually going to _go_ to Hogwarts, do you? With that American wizard there and all?" Harry stopped in mid-move as his eyes widened.

"He may not know about the new DADA teacher. We have to warn him!" Abandoning their game, Ron and Harry scrabbled about, until they came up with some parchment and a quill. Harry quickly set to work writing. After a few minutes, he sat back and read it.

-Dear Padfoot.

This is H. I am writing you with an urgent message. Dumbledore has hired an American wizard to come to Hogwarts to teach DADA. Is also coming to provide xtra security for school. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GO TO HOGWARTS!!!!

Stay careful, H-

Harry considered writing him about the strange dream he had had a few nights ago, but decided against it. After all, after he had received his pendant, he had stopped having nightmares connected to Voldemort. Ron read the letter over his friend's shoulder. "Isn't it a bit…over the top?" he asked. Harry shook his head.

"If I know Sirius at all, he's not going to pay attention to anything less dramatic," he declared. Ron nodded slowly.

"If you say so." Harry got up and walked over to Hedwig's cage. Attaching the letter to her leg, Harry smoothed her feathers.

"I need you to take this to Sirius Hedwig. Can you get it to him and get back before we leave for Hogwarts?" Hedwig looked at him reproachfully, as if he had offended her. He smiled. "Sorry, of course you can." With that, Hedwig took off. "So," Harry said as they sat back down to their game, "Whose turn is it?"

The days passed peacefully enough at the Burrow. Since Charlie had picked up Harry before his birthday, the Weasly's decided to throw him a small party. While they were cutting the cake, several owls had arrived from different people, mostly birthday presents. Hermione had sent him a book entitled –_Dragon Magi: Fact or Fiction_? By Tomas O'Reily-, along with the news that she had been selected as a prefect. Hagrid had sent him a box of homemade fudge, Harry had tried to warn the twins, but they took a bite out of a piece of fudge before he could stop them. There was an immediate fight to see who would get the bathroom first.

Hedwig arrived back with a reply from Sirius and a small birthday card as well. Harry had concealed the reply, and had opened the card discreetly. It was a simple muggle birthday card, since Sirius couldn't very well go out and buy something at a wizard shop.

Mrs. Weasly had given Harry a handmade sweater, while Fred and George had discreetly slipped him a coupon for 50% off at Weasly's Wizard Wheezes joke shop. Ginny and Charlie had given him a leather bound journal and pencil set. On the cover of the journal was a strange picture of a silver dragon in flight. The picture however, only took up a small portion of the cover, as if there were supposed to be more pictures on it. "I got in from a friend in America, he says the picture is related to some sort of legend about dragons that possessed extreme magical powers over a single element, called dragon magi. The dragon on the cover is supposedly the dragon that possessed power over the element of light, which also represented life. The others were earth, lightning, water, fire, wind and darkness, which also represented death." Charlie had said.

Alongside all of the gifts, had come the letters for Hogwarts. Ron and Harry had gone up to Ron's room before opening theirs. "What do you think the teachers intend to throw at us this year Harry?" Ron asked as he looked over his letter. Harry shrugged.

"Well there are only two new books, '_Standard Spells Level five_' by Miranda Goshawk, and '_Dragon Magi: Fact or Fiction_?' By Tomas O'Reily; for Care of Magical Creatures. Hey!" Harry exclaimed. Ron looked at him.

"What is it?"

"Look at the name of the author for the second book." Ron looked and shrugged.

"Tomas O'Reily, so?" Fred and George stuck their heads in the doorframe.

"Have you two seen the author of the book for CoMC?" George asked. Harry nodded, while Ron just looked clueless.

"What's the big deal about the bloke who wrote the ruddy book?!" he asked indignantly. Fred and George shook their heads sadly, and came over to Ron, sandwiching him between them and slinging their arms around his shoulders.

"It's really quite simple Ronnykins," Fred said.

"You remember the conversation we had at dinner when Harry arrived?" George continued. Ron nodded for a moment, still not getting it. The twins released simultaneous, long-suffering sighs, while Harry was trying his hardest not to laugh. "What was the name of the wizard Dumbledore asked to teach DADA?" George asked, as if explaining something to a very small, stupid child. Ron thought for a minute, before brightening.

"Oh yes, that's right! His name was O'Reily, just like the bloke that wrote the book." He stopped and thought for a minute. "But why on earth would Hagrid choose it for CoMC? Do you think he knows the fellow?" Harry tapped the parchment still in his hands with a finger, more specifically, he tapped the word _dragon_. Ron smiled sheepishly. "Oh yeah." It was common knowledge that the Hogwarts groundskeeper had an absolute obsession with anything to do with dragons.

After the twins had left, Harry produced the reply from Sirius, and opened it. Ron looked over his shoulder. "What's it say?" he asked. Harry read it out loud.

"Dear H. You don't need to worry about me. I'm sure that my Marauding skills are as sharp as ever, so I'll see you at school; Padfoot." Harry looked up at Ron, a worried look in his eyes. "I get the feeling that he's coming anyway, American wizard or no American wizard." Ron nodded and patted his friend on the back.

"Relax Harry, like he said, he's a Marauder. He should be able to avoid anything that that O'Reily bloke can cook up." Harry nodded, hoping that his friend was right.

The rest of vacation passed quickly enough, with Fred and George staying in their room, except for business concerning their joke shop, concocting and either approving or discarding plans to be put into action when they got to Hogwarts. Harry helped Ron with his chores around the house, and both he and Ron talked to Charlie about what it was like in Romania with the dragons. They had been thrilled to find out that Norbert was not only doing great; but had also found a mate and the happy couple was expecting their first clutch within a month or so.

The trip to Diagon Alley was fairly uneventful, for several reasons. The first being that Fred and George slipped off without noticed by their mother, in order to check on the progress of the shop they had purchased and were setting up when they could, Harry assumed. Also, Hermione was unable to meet them, since her parents had been forced to attend a seminar on bridgework, so she had no way to get to the alley on that particular day. The final reason was that everyone seemed to be preoccupied with the newest issue of "The Daily Prophet". Harry and Ron glanced at one of the headlines on the paper an old couple were discussing, heads buried in the pages, then looked at each other, shocked.

The headline read –**American Wizard to Teach at Hogwarts. Dumbledore Recruiting Foreign Muscle to Aid in Government Coup?**- The picture accompanying the headline wasn't much really, the only thing that could be seen was what looked like a giant fist, nearly filling the entire space of the photo. The fist never seemed to move, as if it were a muggle picture, but if Harry looked hard enough he could see it quiver a bit. Harry scooped up an abandoned copy up off the street and read the caption under the picture. It read –We of the Daily Prophet's American division attempted to contact Shawn O'Reily for comment, but the only thing he said was "Get the fk out of my house or I'll turn you inside out!"- Harry smiled wryly as he passed the paper to Ron. For once The Boy Who Lived _wasn't_ the top story. And to tell the truth, he felt pretty damn good about it!

When they got back from the Alley, Ron and Harry began to pack for tomorrow, when they would be going to King's Cross. "What do you think this O'Reily fellow is really like Harry?" Ron asked as he attempted to find his last pair of socks. Harry shrugged as he secured his broom care kit and Firebolt to the inside of the lid of his trunk.

"I dunno Ron. Judging from that paper, he doesn't seem to be the type to tolerate anyone like Rita Skeeter, so he must not be all that bad." Both Harry and Ron smirked as they imagined what would befall the nosey, lying reporter if she met the as yet unknown American. Judging from the picture and caption, she wouldn't have had time to snap open her bag and grab her "Quick-Quotes Quills" before being thrown out of his house, bodily.

The next morning was pure chaos as the entire present Weasly clan rushed to get ready to go. Ron and Harry were the only ones who were the least bit calm, having had the foresight (for once) to pack ahead of time.. Eventually they made it to King's Cross and through to platform 9 ¾. Once there, they spotted a familiar bushy head of hair in the throng of students and parents. "**_HERMIONE_**!!!" the duo shouted in unison, rushing to embrace their friend. The bushy-haired girl laughed fondly as she greeted her two best friends, giving both of them hugs. "Congratulations Hermione," Harry said, noticing the prefect badge she had pinned on her shirt. Ron nodded energetically.

"Yeah, you really deserved this!" Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but whatever she was about to say was drowned out by the warning whistle of the Hogwarts Express.

"Better get going, the train's about to leave!" she exclaimed, grabbing her trolley, with Crookshank's whicker cage perched on top of it, emitting hisses and yowls the entire time, and hustled towards the prefect car. "We'll catch up once we get to Hogwarts!" she shouted over her shoulder. Harry and Ron headed towards the last car on the train with Hedwig and Pig riding on top of their trolleys in their own cages. Ginny quietly trailed behind the duo. After they had finished loading up their trunks, Ron and Harry settled in to their compartment. It was fairly empty, only Harry, Ginny and Ron were in it. Suddenly, the door was nudged open, and Neville Longbottom peered in. "'Lo Neville, lose Trevor again?" Harry asked from his seat, not looking up from the copy of "Brooms Monthly" he was leafing through.

"Uh-huh," the rotund Gryffindor nodded. The sound of croaking from under Ginny's seat diverted attention to the youngest Weasly. She got up and crouched down on the floor of the compartment, reached under the seat, and then pulled her hand out; Trevor the toad sitting complacently in the middle of her small palm. She handed him over to Neville, who beamed brightly. "Thanks Ginny!" With that he headed back towards his own compartment.

Time passed slowly on the train, and soon the kindly witch with the snack trolley had come and gone, when the door slid open once more. Harry looked up from his pumpkin pastie, and Ron looked up from his newest set of Famous Wizards trading cards to see their most hated enemy standing in the doorway. Draco Malfoy crossed his arms and directed his patented scowl at the occupants of the compartment. Harry and Ron blinked as they realized that Malfoy's two 'bodyguards', Crabbe and Goyle were missing from their usual places behind Malfoy. "Oy Malfoy," Ron said, "Where's the muscle squad?" Draco ignored the comment and looked directly at Harry.

"Potter," he drawled, "I need to talk to you," he glanced around the room, "In private." Ginny scowled at the Slytherin, her hand resting noticeably near her wand.

"Whatever you need to say, you can say it in front of all of us!" she declared. Ron nodded, backing his little sister up. Malfoy looked at her, and for a split second his eyes didn't seem to be so icy. But then the second was over and he glared full force at the Weasly siblings. He turned and looked at Harry.

"I will only say this once," he said slowly and deliberately, "Potter, I need to talk to you in private, _please_!" Everyone in the compartment gaped at him.

"Who are you and what have you done with Malfoy?" Ron managed to ask. Malfoy ignored him and continued.

"If **_any_** of you breathe even a single **_word_** of this to _anyone_, I will kill you in your _sleep_." Ron and Harry both relaxed.

"He's definitely Malfoy," Ginny noted. Harry looked at Draco and nodded; his face a little grim.

"Five minutes Malfoy," he said in a crisp voice. Ron looked at Harry, surprise and questions in his eyes. "Relax Ron, if he tries anything I'll give a yell." Ron nodded, satisfied with that, and gently herded Ginny from the compartment. Harry looked at Draco. "Five minutes, not a second more Malfoy." Draco quirked an eyebrow at the business-like tone Harry had adopted, but sat down across from him nonetheless.

"What I want is quite simple Potter. I want a truce." Harry stared at Draco as if he had just said that the boy was madly in lust with him.

"A truce?" he asked; more than a bit puzzled. Draco sneered.

"Is there an echo in here? Yes, a truce, a cease-fire, a cessation of hostilities between your little group and myself." Harry, still looking puzzled, said only one word.

"Why?" Draco sighed, this was obviously going to be like attempting to explain quantum physics to a lab rat.

"Because Potter, something powerful is coming, something that both you and I are caught up in." Harry's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What are you going on about?" In reply, Draco reached inside his Hogwarts robes and pulled out a pendant. It was a perfect circle of some sort of dark rock. Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he looked at it.

"I received this nearly two weeks ago," Draco paused, as if still not quite believing what he was about to say. "I received it in a dream, from a creature calling it-self Mountain Lion. Near the end of the dream, he was joined by another, this one calling himself Coyote. He mentioned you, and before that Mountain Lion said that my rival was among those chosen for whatever we've been chosen to do." Harry nodded, and brought out his own amulet from under his blazer. Draco raised an eyebrow at the golden disc, then snorted. "It figures. After all, you _are_ the golden boy of Hogwarts." Harry frowned, and would have retorted, except that the air suddenly seemed drained of all warmth. Harry was beginning to shiver uncontrollably, just as Ron and Ginny burst into the room, Hermione hot on their heels.

"_HARRY_! **_DEMENTORS_**!" was all Ron managed to yell before slamming the compartment shut and performing a locking charm on it. Harry and Draco had both slipped their pendants back under their clothes when his friends had burst in, and suddenly Harry felt warm again, almost as soon as the amulet touched his skin. He looked quizzically at Hermione.

"Dementors are attacking the train Harry," she explained in a rather breathless voice. Ginny, who had remained quite, suddenly let out a small 'eep', and pointed to the window. The other occupants of the compartment looked in the direction she was pointing, and immediately recoiled. A Dementor was floating outside the window, easily keeping pace with the speeding train. Cries from up and down the car confirmed that they were everywhere, leering eyelessly from the outside. It reached up with one scabrous hand, and raked its dirty, broken fingernails across the glass. Harry could almost _feel_ the evil intent coming from the thing. Suddenly, from outside the train there came what sounded like twin roars, so loud and deep that they shook the windows in their casings. Suddenly harry and Draco looked up as another set of roars sounded, seeming to hear words within them. Words that formed the sentences, **_"Lock and load brother!"_** and **_"Aye-aye mon capitan!"_**

The Dementor outside the window was gone as suddenly as it came, seeming to _implode_ as a beam of pure _darkness_ touched it. Everyone in the car could only stare in shock, not able to move or make a sound. However, it was replaced by yet another. This one met a similar fate, but instead of darkness, a powerful beam of light struck it, disintegrating the foul creature on the spot, accompanied by a loud 'bang', just like the first one's demise had been. This continued for about two more minutes, until, finally, no more 'bangs' or shouting could be heard from the rest of the train.

As the last noise died away, a flash of gleaming black, followed by a flash of silver streaked their way past the train as it crossed a bridge high over a river. Harry and Draco would later swear that hey had seen eyes, one icy blue, and the other vibrant green wink at them as they passed.

And then they were gone, and the train was pulling in to Hogwarts

---To Be Continued---

Heh, not bad, not bad at all. Next time, The mysterious Mr. O'Reily makes his appearance, and the saviors of the Hogwarts express are revealed. And an unexpected, and untrustworthy guest in the castle is introduced, someone that we all love to hate. I'll let you all guess as to who it is, so until next time Read & Review.


	3. A Very Singular Wizard

Harry Potter and The Rock of Ages

Well, here's chapter three. And if this story is anything like my other one, it'll REALLY start to take off after this! Here's the review replies, so on with the show!

KyLewin-Draco and Harry, good friends?! Pshaw! The most they'll ever be is slightly friendly rivals.

Andivari- Thanks man, I appreciate the stars. Oh, by the way, I read the newest chapter of _your_ HP fic. Nice; and the American witch was kinda cool; kinda like Tonks too.

Soulstress- well in a way I suppose you could say they are. But they've been combined into one being, whom you've already met, in chapter one actually. I'll leave it to you to guess. And no, it's not O'Reily.

Moezy-chan- Not much action here either, but plenty of word slinging. I think you'll like it, in fact, I'll stake my pen name that you'll laugh out loud at _least_ once.

Animeluvr-Close, but both wrong. Thanks. I've been checking out Andivari's story, and it's not to hard to see how his could eclipse mine. Besides that, since your helping him work on it, it's bound to be on your mind when you're reading another HP fic, you're comparing them in your mind, and seeing if you can find anything that you might be able to integrate into his story.

Legendary Warrior-Relax man, they're rivals to the end, you know that! On the 'Worst Character Thought of' thing, well, I guess great minds can think alike sometimes. Awww, you're embarrassing me!

Warconq- heh, thanks. Okay, I'll give you the skinny on the couples, but you have to decipher them on your own. DM/G, H/K (OC from another story), and R/HG. Thanks, the dragon magi kinda tie the whole story together in the end.

Raliena- here's that update you wanted.

AN: The ideas in here concerning Quidditch and seating in the Great Hall are all ideas borrowed from Velvet Ghost the pin and count to what?

"AAA": normal speech

**__**

"AAA": dragon speech

-AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Chapter 3- A Very Singular Wizard

As the train pulled into Hogwarts, it seemed as if everyone on it gave a simultaneous sigh of relief. Hermione turned, as if about to say something, and caught sight of Draco. "What're you doing in here Malfoy?" she asked in an acid tone. Draco wasn't even fazed.

"It's simple Mu-" Draco caught himself just in time when he saw Harry's eyebrow twitch. "I mean Granger. I needed to speak to Potter. Now if you'll excuse me." Without saying another word, Draco slipped past the slightly stunned Gryffindors, puled out his wand, unlocked the door to the compartment with a simple _"Alohamora"_, and was gone. Hermione, Ron and Ginny all stared after him, jaws slack. Ron was the first to shake off the shock, and looked over at Harry.

"Bloody _hell_! What did Malfoy want that has him being _civil_ to Hermione?!" he asked his friend. Harry shook his head.

"I'll tell you on the way to the castle." As the four of them got off the train, they saw Professor McGonagall standing near the end of the platform holding a lantern aloft, looking slightly worried.

"Is anyone injured at all?" She called out. There was a chorus of 'no Professor's, after which she seemed to relax a bit. She nodded primly. "Good then. First years, follow me please." As the first years followed the deputy headmistress to the docks, the rest of the students made their way to the horse-less carriages. Except this year they weren't horse-less. Harry skidded to a stop as he saw the monsters that stood complacently between the shafts.

They looked somewhat like winged horses. If these particular winged horses had come from hell that is. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither; vast leathery wings that looked like they belonged to some giant bat. Ron turned to look at Harry, concern showing on his face. "You alright mate?" he asked. Harry blinked rapidly, then looked at Ron.

"Ron, as my best friend, you wouldn't lie to me, would you?" Ron shook his head, looking a bit more worried. "Then please tell me that you can see those things harnessed to the carriages too." Ron looked at the carriages, _directly at the demon-horses_, and shrugged.

"Sorry mate, I don't see anything." He peered closely at Harry. "Are you sure that you're feeling alright? Maybe the Dementors got to you and you just don't realize it yet." Harry shook his head, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Malfoy step into a carriage, alongside a pretty sixth year. Harry shook his head at the stray thought. 'Pretty? It just doesn't seem like the right term. She's not beautiful or anything, not like Cho is, but there's something there…' Harry shook his head as he heard Ron talking to him. "Harry? Harry? C'mon mate, we're the last ones left!" At that Harry snapped from his hormone-induced daze and climbed aboard the coach.

"What took you so long?" Ginny asked as the coach finally began to move. Ron looked at Harry for a moment.

"Harry just thought he saw something. He might have, I don't know," he shrugged. Harry mentally sighed in relief, silently thanking his friend for not saying anything. "Now," Ron said, getting the look in his that he always got when asking a question that he wanted answered, "What did the bloody bouncing ferret want?" Harry looked at him and gave a small grin.

"A truce." Everyone stared at him a moment, before Ron stuck his pinkie in his ear and began to wiggle it around. After a moment, he pulled it out and looked at his friend.

"I must have had a lump of wax stuck in my ear, because I _thought_ I just heard you say that _MALFOY_ wanted a **_TRUCE_**!" Harry nodded.

"That's right. It has something to do with this." Harry pulled out his pendant, and showed it to his friends. "Malfoy has one similar to this, except his is just a black disk. The way he described getting it was identical to how I got mine." Hermione took the sun shaped ornament into her hand and examined it closely.

"Whoever mad this was very good. I can't see any flaws in it at all." She looked closely at Harry. "Exactly _how_ did you get it?" Harry scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Um, in a dream?" he said. Any comments his friends could have made at that point were stopped, since the carriage had come to a stop in front of Hogwarts. Ron looked at his friend.

"Let's finish talking about this later," he suggested. They all nodded in agreement, before entering the Great Hall. As a habit, he looked at the Head table where the teachers sat, seeing who was there. Professor McGonagall was, of course not there, since she was riding over with the first years. The woman, Grubbly-Plank, who had replaced Hagrid during the incidents of Harry's second year, occupied Hagrid's seat. There was an extra seat at the table, near the end, which was empty. And sitting at the end of the table was one of the ugliest women Harry had ever set eyes on.

He thought she looked just like a large pale toad. She was rather squat with a broad, flabby face, as little neck as his Uncle Vernon, and a very wide, slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round, cold, and slightly bulging. She had a small black velvet bow perched on top of her curly head that added to the amphibian illusion. It looked like a large fly she was about to catch on her long sticky tongue. All in all, she made Aunt Petunia look like Pamela Anderson. When they got to their seats and had sat down, Harry poked Ron in the side. "Who's that woman up there?" Ron took a close look, and then shrugged, and returned to staring at his plate as if willing food to appear on it. Harry sighed. Once Ron's mind was on food, there wasn't much that could get it on a different track. The Sorting Hat was sitting in it's usual spot, center stage on top of a stool. Other than that, it was just like the beginning of every other school year.

Except one face was missing from the crowd. Even though the nightmares had stopped, Harry still felt lingering guilt over what had happened to Cedric, he still thought that there should have been something he could have done to save him! Harry's somber thoughts were cut off as Professor McGonagall made her way out onto the stage, rolled up parchment in hand, leading the crowd of first years. As she came to a stop, the rip in the brim of the hat opened and the hat began to sing.

(Insert the song here, cause I can't think up any good lyrics)

After the hat had finished singing, there was the usual round of applause. After the Hall was silent once more, Professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment, and looked at the fidgeting crowd of first years. "When I call your name," she instructed, "Please step up onto the stage and place the hat on your head. Adams, Ryan." A nervous looking brown-haired boy stepped onto the stage, walked to the stool, sat and placed the hat on his head. After a moment, the hat yelled out…

"**Hufflepuff**!" The Hufflepuff table burst into applause as the boy shakily stood up and walked over to the table. The sorting continued for about twenty minutes, with eight new Gryffindors being added to the ranks, three boys, and four girls. After the last First Year had been sorted (Zachichelli, Amy; Ravenclaw) Dumbledore rose to his feet and looked over the students. All murmurs ceased as the aged headmaster began to speak.

"Welcome all of you, back to Hogwarts. I am thankful that none of you were injured during the attack on the train. I am not entirely sure of the parties responsible, but I think we should find out soon enough. Also, I have a few announcements to make, concerning this school year. First, we have a visitor from the ministry, who has come to observe the classes, Madame Umbridge." As he said this, he gestured to the toad-like woman, who stood up and began to speak. Her voice, surprisingly, was high and girlish, instead of the croak everyone in the hall had been expecting.

"Ahem-hem. Thank you Headmaster. I would just like to say that I hope that everyone will cooperate, and I hope that we'll all get along just fine." She sat back down, ignoring Dumbledore, who looked a bit surprised that she had said anything at all. But he quickly shook it off and continued.

"This year, we are going to be doing a few things a bit differently. First off, the House Tables will not be used for the rest of the year. In an effort to promote inter-house unity, the House and Head tables will be replaced by a large number of smaller tables." There was a great deal of muttering at this, but Dumbledore held up his hand, and it ceased almost immediately. "Thank you. Now," he continued, "About the Quidditch cup. It has been cancelled." There were several shouts of alarm at this, but they were quickly suppressed. "_However_, Quidditch _will_ continue." Harry heard Fred and George let out relieved sighs. "To strengthen alliances between the houses, I've decided that a Quidditch League will be put in place. Teams are made up of the usual seven members, and matches are as normal, except that a team can consist of players from any house, mixed together, and there are an unlimited number of teams. The more teams we have, the more games, and I'm sure that everyone will want to join in the fun with their friends. If we get more than twenty teams, I will be delighted to organize a staff vs. students game." There were several cheers at this, as some students imagined beating their own teachers at Quidditch.

Ron's eye's lit up, and he turned to Harry. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked. Harry nodded grinning, but turned his attention back to the head table as Dumbledore began to speak again.

"On another, sadder note, it has been decided that the4 Yule ball will now be a yearly event, in remembrance of Cedric Diggory." At Cedric's name, Dumbledore bowed his head. "So that we may never forget those who have fallen to Voldemort."

"Also, I would like to remind all students that the Forbidden forest is, of course, forbidden. And now, he said raising both arms, "Let the Feast begin!" At his words the food appeared on the House tables, and the students began to dig in, talking excitedly amongst themselves. Ron dug in with his usual ferocity, while Hermione chatted with Ginny. Harry was reaching for some food himself when the giant doors of the Great Hall slammed open. Everyone's neck snapped towards the door, and one of the First year Ravenclaw's let out a short shrill scream.

Standing in the doorway were two ferocious looking dragons, nearly identical in build. They had the standard build of dragons, four legs, the front limbs looking as if the could double as hands, wings and long tail. They each possessed a pair of horns and a row of spines that ran the length of their backs. Their ears were slightly rounded ridges on the sides of their heads. That however, was where the similarities ended. One was bright silver, while the other was gleaming obsidian. On the black dragon, both horns and spikes swept backwards, while on his silver counterpart, the spikes swept forward. The silver one was also about three fourths the size of the black one. And both of them were wearing wraparound sunglasses.

Everything was silent as the entire student body held its breath, waiting for the beasts to attack. Everyone at the Head table seemed paralyzed. The dragons shifted after a moment, and their wings, which had been partially extended, were brought tight up against their bodies, revealing a figure in the doorway. The silence in the Great hall was deafening. The figure began to move out of the shadows, his steps audible in the silence. Finally he stepped into the light, and everyone got a good look at him.

He was about six foot five, with messy brown hair, at least the part that could be seen under the baseball cap he was wearing on his head, which had a picture of a grinning Indian brave on it, and a shadow of a beard. He was dressed in well-worn jeans, a snug gray T-shirt, worn hiking boots and a battered brown leather jacket. Resting on the bill of his cap was a pair of sunglasses. His eyes were the strangest thing about him, a rusty reddish-brown. He began to walk forward, hands in the pockets of his jacket, sometimes looking to the left, sometimes the right as he went. He stopped walking once he reached the Head table and just stood there for a moment, looking at Dumbledore. His two companions had followed him, their claws clicking on the stone floor in the silence. He grinned suddenly. "Sorry we're late boss," he said, laughter in his voice. At that the spell of silence that had hung over the Great hall broke. There was a loud muttering and whispering as people pointed at the dragons, or at the stranger who had brought them. Dumbledore nodded, and the Hall fell silent as he stood up.

"Hello Mr. O'Reily, it's good to finally meet you in person. Everyone," he said, looking to face the student body, "This is Mr. Shawn O'Reily. He will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year." There was immediate increase in mutter. "Also," Dumbledore continued, "he has also agreed to provide extra security for the castle during these troubled times." Shawn held up a hand at that.

"Actually sir, I'm more of a coordinator for the _real_ security. These boys here are a part of that security." It looked like he was about to say more, when Umbridge leapt to her feet, eyes cold.

"I really must protest sir! You expect those…those **_beasts_** to protect this school?!" she gestured towards the two dragons, who glanced at each other and snorted. "The dumb brutes will more than likely eat the entire student body! Not to mention you are in violation of code 563-7B, which prohibits such creatures from coming in contact with large bodies of underage wizards, who don't know how to defend themselves!" Shawn's eyes grew cold as he looked at her.

"Lady," he drawled in a deceptively bored tone, "these two boys right here are probably smarter than you, Fudge, and half of your _damned_ ministry put together! And you wanna know what else?" he asked, ignoring her stunned expression. "You can take your rules and codes and stick them up your-**_MPPFFF!_**" His rant was cut off as two tails suddenly wrapped around his face, cutting him off from telling the witch, and the entire school, exactly where she could stick her codes and rules.

"Well I never!" Umbridge gasped. The silver dragon turned to face the black one and gave a growl. As he did so, harry could have **_sworn_** that he heard it mutter **_"well there's a first time for everything lady."_** After a moment, in which the entire student body, and at least a few of the female teachers were trying their hardest to contain their laughter, Shawn managed to pull the tails off his face. He glared at the two dragons, who merely looked back at him from behind their sunglasses.

"Ya know," Shawn remarked, "Those puppy-dog faces work a lot better if you can actually see your eyes." Everyone in the Hall was surprised to see the Dragons raise their glasses up and perch them on top of their eye-ridges. It turned out that the silver dragon possessed vivid green eyes, while the black had icy blue orbs. Shawn turned back to the Headmaster. "Now, Professor, as I was about to say, the reason these two came in with me, apart from the really cool entrance, was that I merely thought that the students might want to thank these two flyboys for savin' their bacon on the train. And I thought it would be a way to introduce a part of my little family to the students. This idiot," he said, pointing to the silver one, "is Mad Max." Max lifted up one of his forepaws and gave thumbs up, stretching his snout into a reptilian grin. "And that bad boy over by the Slytherins is Reno," Shawn gestured to the black dragon. Reno merely nodded in response. Professor Dumbledore stood after the introduction and nodded to the two.

"You have my gratitude for saving these young lives. Thank you."

The dragons nodded, looked at Shawn, then each other, flipped their sunglasses down over their eyes with a claw, turned in perfect sync and walked, no, _strutted_ out of the Great Hall. However, as they passed the ends of the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables, their tails snaked out, and curled around a whole ham each. As soon as the had a good grip, they were gone in a flash. "IF YOU WANTED A SNACK ALL YOU HAD TO DO IS ASK!" Shawn yelled after them. He turned and looked sheepishly at Dumbledore. "Eh, whadda ya gonna do?" he shrugged.

He went up and took his seat, which happened to be smack dab between Snape and Umbridge. He paused in the act of taking off his jacket and sitting down though, and looked over to Dumbledore. "Sir, would it be alright if I said one last thing before we let the feast finish?" Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you." Shawn stood, and rapped on the table for a moment, to get the attention of the students, who had gone back to eating, talking avidly amongst themselves about all the new going-ons. After silence fell he looked over the student body and grinned. "I have one thing I'd like to say to the students I'll be teaching this year. Be afraid; be very, _very_ afraid. **_MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA_**! Okay, I'm done."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny exchanged looks. Looks that said 'this bloke is nutters!'. From across the room, Draco caught Harry's eye and shook his head sadly. Harry nodded, before allowing Hermione to draw him into a conversation about what type of dragons those might have been. 'Well,' he thought, 'at least this year won't be boring.' After the feast, everyone was completely stuffed. And quite tired too. Eventually Dumbledore dismissed them, and Ron and Harry trudged the well known path to the Gryffindor common room, following Hermione and Dean, who had also made Prefect. After receiving the password, _flambé_, and entering their old haunts, he and Ron had made their way to bed, agreeing that it was to late to be talking, and that they would discuss things tomorrow.

Later that night, as Harry got ready for bed, he looked out the window, and saw several shapes huddled out on the grounds. There was also something digging a large hole in the middle of the grounds, he could see the flying dirt clods outlined against the stars. After a moment, he saw one of the shapes, quite a bit lighter than the night surrounding it, shift from where it lay, out of range of the flying debris, and crane it's head upwards, almost as if it was looking straight at him. Harry stepped away from the window, and wondering just what it was that about those strange dragons, slid into bed.

As he sank into sleep, he didn't see the tail, as thick as his waist and barbed at the end, fall across the window as a large being gently snored on the roof above him.

---To Be Continued---

Wow, this has to be one of the fastest updates I've ever done! Next time, Shawn displays even stranger behavior, Umbridge nearly gets knifed, the students get their schedules, and lessons begin.


	4. Coffee, Classes and Chaos

Harry Potter and the Rock of Ages

Hey folks, glad to see that interest in the story is perking up. Sorry about the long wait for the next section, but I'm doing the best I can here.

Cmartist-Yep, that's pretty much the case. The dragons don't really get any text time in this chapter (Get it, air time, text time?) but they're going to make appearances next chapter. Thanks for the compliment on how I'm writing them.

Animeluvr1-Hmmm, cool about Roxy being in Andi's fic. Glad to hear that she's un-sucky now. The ball's more in honor of him, kind of like Mexico's Day of the Dead.

Raelina-ma'am yes, ma'am!

KyLewin- Years? Try decades probably. Yeah, I don't like the whole Harry and Draco being chummy stories either, though a mutual truce, and eventual tolerance of each other seems much more realistic, though still about as likely as Snape kissing Sirius on the lips. Sorry for the long wait thoug, it couldn't really be helped.

Moezy-chan- Sorry, no adventure here, though there's a good dash of plot.

Andivari-It's nearly what? Yeah, Reno and Mad Max are going to be part of my comic relief squad, but there's another character that I'll introduce later that'll have Peeves quivering in fear. He made a brief appearance in my X-men fic, when he dropped by the Hood house once it was under new management. Can you guess who it is?

Legendary Warrior-Description is where it should be? I think you might want to proof read your reviews man, they're coming across a little garbled. Actually, I just picked a word at random that wasn't likely to come up in a conversation.

"AAA": normal speech 

**_"AAA"_**: dragon speech

-AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Disclaimer- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye. (Too true)

Chapter 4- Coffee, Classes and Chaos

Harry was dreaming. Once again he was back on the mesa where he had encountered Coyote. But this time he seemed to be alone, completely and totally alone. "Where am I?" he wondered aloud. A gruff cough had him spinning on his heels, bringing him face to face with... a very, _very_ big cat. Harry backed away in fear, forgetting momentarily that this was a dream. The cat shook his head, his lip curling upward in what appeared to be amusement.

"Don't fear young cub, I'm not going to hurt you." Harry stopped backing away, but didn't come any closer to the big cat.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously. The cat padded forward, and then preformed a sort of sideways jump up onto a rock ledge.

"My name is Mountain Lion. I was the one who contacted the Avatar of Darkness..."  
  
"You mean Draco?" Harry cut in, surprised. The lion fixed him with a glare Snape would have had to work decades to perfect, before continuing.

"Yes. He is the Avatar of Darkness, just as you are the Avatar of Light. Polar opposites, but both are forces of Good." Harry looked at him in shock.

"How can darkness ever be _good_?" Mountain Lion shook his shaggy head as the dreamscape began to melt around them.

"Another time cub, it seems that our time here was cut shorter than I had hoped." The big cat looked Harry in the eye. "Until we meet again, remember this, Darkness and Light are brothers, neither is truly evil, though _both_ may be corrupted by Evil forces." As the dreamscape completely dissolved, Harry was left floating in a void. He heard someone shouting his name, and suddenly he felt himself thrust into wakefulness.

"Harry, c'mon, it's time for breakfast, and I want to get a good seat before some Slytherin steals all the best ones!" Ron was yelling at him. Harry shook his head. 'Good seats? And why is he talking about the Slytherins taking...our...' Harry's thoughts trailed off as he remembered what Dumbledore had said last night about inter-house unity. He was up and out of bed in a flash. He and Ron were the only two left in the fifth year boys dormitories. He dressed quickly, and he and Ron made it to the Common Room to find Hermione waiting for them.

"Finally, I've been waiting _ages_ for you two!" she exclaimed as they made their way through the portrait entrance. The trio made their way to the Great Hall and, once there, stopped in the doorway to take in the change.

True to his word, Dumbledore had replaced the House and Head tables with a large number of smaller, round tables, which could seat about eight people, nine if everyone crowded together, and maybe even ten if they all held their breath at once. They spotted the teachers scattered throughout the Hall, with a group of first years from all the different houses clustered around Dumbledore. Harry spotted a table that was barely occupied, and began to make his way to it. About halfway there though, he noticed exactly who those occupants were. One was Ginny, who was complacently munching on a piece of bacon, occasionally seeming to take a lightning fast look at her companion every now and again. And the other was Malfoy, who seemed to find something in his bowl of oatmeal extremely interesting right now. But when Ginny wasn't looking at him, he would tip his head up just a bit and steal a sideways glance at her. Ron sat down next to Ginny, nodding a cordial, if forced, nod in the direction of Malfoy, and reached for the eggs.

A '**_thunk!_**'****sound, followed by the sound of muted cursing had a few heads turning to see what was going on as Professor O'Reily made his way into the Hall. He was rubbing his now red face, and appeared to be half-asleep. The cap and jacket were gone, but he was still dressed in muggle clothes, only he had an old red T-shirt that said 'I'm the bad thing that happens to bad people' on it in green letters. It had originally said good people, but someone had taken a black marker and crossed the word 'good' out, writing the word 'bad' underneath. He also appeared to be almost sleepwalking.

He shuffled over to the table next to the one Harry and his friends were at, and plunked himself down into the seat right next to Umbridge, which meant he was facing Harry's table and they were facing him. She snorted and looked at him frostily. The girls were also staring at him from their table, but this was more than likely because his T-shirt was a bit tight on him, almost a muscle shirt. His biceps were well formed, and his triceps were nothing to scoff at either. His hair, when not covered by a ball cap, was short, but long enough to be messy. On closer examination, Draco also noticed a detail he had missed before. The new Professor's nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and had set wrong. It didn't detract from his appearance, god knows enough of the girls from the surrounding tables were looking at him, Draco even noted Pansy Parkinson, the Slytherin slut (AN: Sorry to you folks who like her, I can't stand her personally) drooling a bit in the Americans direction.

"Mr. O'Reily." Umbridge said, her voice cold. He ignored her, and did something very odd. He tapped on the tabletop in front of him, tapping out the first part of "Shave and A Haircut". A moment later a mug and a large steaming pot of coffee 'plunked' down on the table, finishing the tune. Umbridge, still a bit offended by the fact that this man was ignoring her, reached out to grab a cup of the coffee, not caring that he hadn't invited her to share. What happened next caught that section of the Great Hall's attention.

There was a loud '**_THUNK_**', followed by a girlish shriek. Professor's Snape and McGonagall, who were closest to the table, stood and rushed over to see what had happened. They found Draco, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Umbridge all staring at the knife which was imbedded in the table on one side of Umbridge's thick wrist, passing through the cuff of her robe sleeve and quite effectively pinning her arm tightly to the table. Shawn on the other hand, was quite contentedly pouring himself a cup of coffee. "My coffee," he grunted, before taking a sip. Snape and McGonagall, after tugging on the utensil for a moment, took out their wands and preformed a levitation charm on the implement, lifting it out of the wood, since neither of them could pull it out. Once she was free, Umbridge fled from the table, throwing a frightened look over her shoulder at the American. Once she was gone, McGonagall scowled at him.

"Mr. O'Reily! Do you have any idea who that was?!" He shrugged indifferently, and continued to drink his coffee, eyes lazily scanning the room. "That woman, insufferable though she may be, is Minister Fudge's personal assistant!" The American merely shrugged again, before setting his coffee down and looking the deputy head mistress in the eye. Snape had left as soon as the woman had been freed, and was once more surrounded by the Slytherin students.

"She tried to take my coffee," he said, as if that excused the entire thing. McGonagall turned an interesting shade of puce, turned sharply on her heel, and walked away briskly. "About time," the DADA professor said, going back to his coffee, ignoring the murmurs that were now flying around the room, things like: "WOW! Did you see how _fast_ he moved?" and "I wonder what she'll put in her report to the ministry about him?". The man merely ignored them all, as if he was used to things like this. Hermione looked at him, scandalized, while Draco merely raised an eyebrow. Ron, Harry and Ginny were still too stunned about the whole knife thing to really register much of what had happened after.

Hermione opened her mouth and began to say something to the others, but it was drowned out by the sound of hundreds of wings, and a few soft hoots, as a torrent of owls swept down, delivering the mail and schedules to the students. The piercing cry of a raptor however, cut though the other sounds, as a large eagle, its plumage a glistening silver, streaked into the Great Hall and wheeled overhead once, before going into a dive, headed straight for Harry's table. Ron and Hermione made a move to jump out of the way, but O'Reily smiled. "It's okay kids, it's just Major," he said. As he spoke, the large bird suddenly flared its wings and glided lazily over the student's heads, to perch on the American's shoulder. Hermione stared at the bird in awe, as he turned his head and to survey the entire Hall with his tawny gaze, the military dog tags around his neck clinking together softly. Once again, the entire hall was filled with more muttering about the new teacher and his strange..."pets".

"Is...is that a Silver eagle?" she asked, a bit breathlessly. O'Reily nodded, holding his mug of coffee up near his shoulder. The bird dunked his head and took a swift drink, followed by two more. At the kid's looks of incredulous-ness, he spread one hand out in a sort of shrug.

"What can I say, you give them a sip when they're a fledgling, they're hooked for life," her said in a half kidding voice. "So," he said, ignoring the bird, which had yet to leave, and picking up his fork, "I imagine you kids might want to take a look at your schedules," before turning his attention to the mountain of food in front of him. Ron started, he had forgotten about the schedule lying in front of him. Draco and Hermione were already looking over theirs, while Ginny was unfolding hers at that moment. Harry looked around for his, then realized that Hedwig hadn't arrived yet. At that moment the owl in question landed on her owner's shoulder, affectionately nipping his ear. Harry fed her a small piece of bacon, after taking his schedule from her leg. He opened it up and began reading. Ron, who was eating as he read, suddenly choked on his eggs. Harry reached over and pounded him on the back a few times, helping him to clear his airway. Draco raised an eyebrow, but refrained from comment. Ginny leaned over to her brother, offering him a goblet of pumpkin juice.

"What's wrong Ron?" She asked in a concerned voice.

"W-we have double DADA _and_ Potions with Slytherin!" he finally managed to splutter. Draco let out a long-suffering sigh as the Gryffindors, who had forgotten he was there, turned to look at him. Ron scowled. "What's your problem _Malfoy_?" he sneered. The blonde wizard shook his head in mock sadness.

"I don't see why you're so upset about this Weasly. Remember that I've agreed to a truce, even if _you_ haven't. You'd be better off looking out for the rest of the Slytherins. All of them have seen me sitting with you, and more than likely I'll be a pariah in my own house by now. Therefore, one of _them_ will take over my post of Gryffindor torturer. And **_believe_** _me_, there are a few in there that are quite a bit worse than I ever was. Unless of course," he continued, "I make some sort of remark about Potter, yourself, Granger, or some other member of your family." Ron opened his mouth to retort, but Draco cut him off. "However, that would violate the terms of the truce, so I won't." The students were so engrossed in their conversation that they jumped when they heard O'Reily speak.

"That's a pretty binding code of honor, for such a young kid," he remarked from his table, stroking Major's neck with one hand, while scraping the last few eggs off of his plate with the fork in the other. Draco appeared to merely shrug, but Ginny, who was closest to him, heard him mutter under his breath "It's the only thing that separates me from my father."

A few moments later, Ginny suddenly went pale when she saw her own schedule. She had received a letter from Dumbledore earlier in the summer, saying that he and the rest of the teaching staff were so impressed with her work that they had decided to give her a few more advanced classes, to see how well she did in them. These advanced classes had turned out to be fifth year DADA and Transfiguration, along with Potions and Herbology. She groaned and held her face in her hands, wishing that she hadn't been so flattered and accepted. The workload was going to be HUGE! "Something wrong Weaselette?" a voice sneered from nearby. Ginny jerked up, and looked as if she was going to give Malfoy a piece of her mind, but Ron beat her to it.

"Say one more word to my sister Ferret face, and I'll hex you so hard that your children's, children's, _children_ will feel it, if you're even capable of producing a child afterwards." Ginny glared at Ron, hating the fact that he had just done that for some strange reason. But Draco merely sneered back at the red-haired Gryffindor.

"I was merely asking your sister what the was matter Weasly. And I believe that she's perfectly capable of fighting her own battles." Draco looked as if he might have said a bit more, but caught himself, and went back to his food. Hermione, Harry and Ron all stood up, followed shortly by Ginny.

"Well, we'd better get going, we don't want McGonagall turning us into pocket watches for being late," Harry joked. Ron nodded, and they set out for Transfiguration, with Ginny trailing behind them. Draco watched them go, before getting up and heading towards his first class of the day, Divination. He made a face at the thought of facing the kooky teacher this early, but then brightened when he realized that he could probably sleep the entire class, and then claim that he was meditating.

Shawn watched the two boys go, the ones he had sensed power from, and sighed. 'How am I supposed to get them alone to talk?' he asked himself. He gently slapped his head with his palm. 'DUH! I'm a teacher now, I can just ask them to stay after class!' He went over his schedule in his head, and found that he had Slytherin and Gryffindor for his very last class on Wednesdays. Tomorrow was Wednesday. 'Perfect,' he thought. Then he remembered that he had to prepare his class for the Sixth year Gryffindors. He remembered all of the teachers warning him about the Weasly twins. He was sure his reputation as a prankster would have already reached them, and had already prepared several counter traps to the ones they had set in his classroom last night. He had gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, and found quite a few tricks to embarrass him, but they were a little shoddy. 'Either that, ' he thought with amusement, 'or they're not used to going up against anyone from my line of work.'

The man shifted his shoulder a little, letting his avian friend know that he had to leave now. Major took to the air, and after a few heavy wingbeats, was gone from sight. Shawn drank the last of his coffee, then got up, and headed towards his new classroom.

For the fifth year class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the first day back was as boring as it could get. Most of their teachers for the day did nothing but talk about the O.W.L.S., and how they would effect the course of their studies, and possibly their lives. Only Potions had been different, with Snape immediately popping a quiz to "see what knowledge your puny little minds have retained from the last year".

It had started calmly enough, but Harry had noticed something odd about Professor Snape this year. He seemed a bit more relaxed than was normal, and didn't scowl as prominently as last year. He had fully expected Snape to come down on Draco like a bolt of lightning for consorting with Gryffindors, but to Harry and Ron's (who was once again sitting next to him) surprise, the blonde Slytherin seemed to have retained his place as teachers pet. Ginny had been forced to sit beside Draco, because no Slytherin was now willing to sit near their dethroned Prince; and no Gryffindor in their right mind would take the seat either. Before Snape handed out his quiz, he stood at the head of the room, the papers stacked neatly behind him on his desk.

"This year," he announced, "I am enforcing a new rule. You must partner with the person you are sitting next to for all two person projects." He held up his hand at the slight groan from the class. No one was stupid enough to continue it. "However, for projects requiring the cooperation of three or more people, you may choose your own partners." At this the class brightened a little.

Halfway through the quiz, Draco suddenly stiffened as he felt something sharp dig into his back. He glared at Ginny, but she looked at him in a quizzical manner, making small motions with her hands to show that she hadn't done anything. The sound of someone sniggering behind him had him directing his most potent glare in that direction. The two tables behind him held Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, a one time interest, and Crabbe and Goyle, both looking as stupid as ever. Once Pansy noticed Draco looking in her direction, she made a big show of fawning over Blaise, who merely smiled smugly. Draco snorted in disgust and turned back to his parchment.

Harry, Ginny and Ron, who had all witnessed the silent exchange, shared quizzical looks, until a sharp cough from Snape brought them back to earth. He glared at them for a moment, and Harry immediately expected points to be deducted from their House. But instead he merely looked back down at his work on his desk, and ignored them. The Trio exchanged one more round of looks before getting back to work.

After class Blaise and his little entourage had waited outside until Draco had emerged; followed at a distance by the Trio-plus-one. "Well, well, well, look how the mighty have fallen," Blaise sneered.

'He needs to curl his lip less and put a little more venom in his voice if he wants to imitate Malfoy's sneer,' Ron thought. Malfoy was also thinking this himself. Of course if Ron had known this, he would have immediately cast a memory charm on himself. "What do you want Zabini?" Draco asked in a bored tone. Blaise folded his arms and glared at Draco.

"Only to tell you this Malfoy, you'd better watch yourself from now on, because every Slytherin in this school is gunning for you." With that he turned with an impressive flourish, and stalked away. Draco snorted.

"Amateur. A threat needs to be subtly veiled, not openly brandished. And if that flourish wasn't practiced I'm a Hufflepuff." He suddenly realized that he was thinking aloud, and that Potter and Co. could hear him. "Well," he said in a business-like manner, "It appears I'm sitting with you lot again for dinner." Ron opened his mouth to object, but Ginny stomped on his foot and Hermione jabbed him in the ribs. Harry nodded solemnly, before heading up the stairs towards the Great Hall, Draco brushing past him on the way.

When they got to the Hall, they found a huge crowd gathered around a single table, laughing. Harry managed to work his way through the press of bodies, and once through, immediately doubled over in laughter. Fred and George were sitting at the table. At least it _looked_ like Fred and George. Their skin was a deep purple, their faces were covered with large, green, heart-shaped boils, and their hair was standing on end. It was also a vibrant pink instead of its usual rich red. Once the others got through, they also began to laugh heartily. Even Malfoy was smirking wider than was his wont. After a few moments, Hermione calmed down enough to ask them, "What happened to you two?"

Fred pulled a face. "Mr. O'Reily happened. We took all the trouble of setting up a few welcoming pranks last night, and what does he do?"

"Turns it all around on us," answered George. Both twins' gloomy faces immediately broke into wide admiring grins. "The man's a bloody genius," the chorused. As the twins immersed themselves in hero worship, Harry and his friends, and Draco, moved to an empty table, near where the man in question was reclining at ease, feet up on the table, and a toothpick in his teeth. As the kids sat down and reached for their plates, the girl that Harry had seen boarding the coaches with Draco yesterday sat down opposite him.

"Hi Draco, I'm going to sit here today. My brother's being an insufferable prat, and most of my friends are still cooing over the new teacher. Except for you, unless you've been keeping something secret from me," she finished in a teasing voice. Draco flushed, then gave a curt nod in the affirmative.

There was silence for a few moments, before the girl nudged Draco, none to gently, in the ribs. He looked at her. "What?" She shared a long-suffering expression with Hermione and Ginny.

"Boys, the most thick-headed creatures on the planet." She turned back to Draco. "Introduce me stupid!"

"Oh, is that all. Potter, Weaslys, Granger, this is Kainda Zabini. Kainda...would you stop poking me in the ribs now?" Suddenly, a shadow loomed over the table. The six looked up to see Professor Snape looming over them.

"Can we help you with anything sir?" Harry asked. Snape shook his head.

"I merely need you to point me in the direction of that reprobate O'Reily. He says he needs to talk to me, and then disappears. Probably forgot; again." He finished, muttering the last two things to himself.

"Reprobate am I? I didn't know you cared hooknose," The 'reprobate' in question laughed from behind Snape, clapping a hand on the Potion Master's shoulder. Harry and the rest of the students scrunched down, anticipating the Slytherin head's wrath.

Instead, he smirked, and said, "Hooknose yourself, remember who broke _your_ nose in the first place." There was a "thump" as Ron hit the floor in a dead faint. Snape's unusual behavior had finally taken its toll on the poor Weasly. Shawn peered over the table at his prone form.

"What's eatin' him?" While Hermione, Ginny and Harry attempted to revive their friend, Shawn began to steer Snape away from the table, making a careless looking gesture over his shoulder, while muttering "_Finite Incantantum_". At their own table, the twins suddenly found themselves return to their normal states. "That should teach those kids to try and top the all-American Prince of Pranks. Now," he said, turning all business, "what I wanted to talk to you about was you helping me teach my class. You know, give me a hand demonstrating some of the more dangerous techniques, how to use some of the finer applications of martial magic, and possibly fill in if my other job requires me to miss classes. After all, you _are_ a member of the _exclusive_ Fight Club." Snape nodded.

"Very well then, I'll...'give you a hand' as you put it, when you need the help." Shawn moved to clap Snape on the back, but the Potions Master moved out of the way with sinuous grace. He leaned forward and muttered into the other teacher's ear, "I would watch your behavior here in the open; there are spies for _Him_ in the most innocent looking of students." With that word of warning, Snape turned and stalked off, acting as if he had just been grievously insulted. Shawn just smirked, and headed out the door towards the lawn to check on the progress of the temporary lair.

As he wandered outside, the American found the Headmaster standing on the perimeter of the lair's entrance, watching as Golem went back and forth; carting excess dirt. The other dragons had already gone below, and were each carving out their own personal niches in the lair in their own ways. Shawn came up to stand beside the older wizard, and the two of them merely observed in silence for a few moments. Then Dumbledore spoke in a serious voice. "I have taken a great risk in bringing you and your companions here Shawn, but Twin Eagles told me that you were part of the solution to the current situation, and the key to finding the rest of the avatars. And your Uncle vouched for your teaching abilities, though I am a bit concerned about some of the contents of your classroom. But I trust them, and therefore, I will place that trust in you as well. Please, help to keep the students safe from harm." Shawn nodded, before replying in as serious a voice as that used by Dumbledore.

"I can teach them, and protect them from some things sir, but only they can truly protect themselves." He placed a hand on the old man's shoulder, and gave a grin. "Put some faith in us youngsters old timer, we may surprise you in the end." After saying this, Shawn meandered down the sloped tunnel that led into the lair. A "Watch it needle noggin," was heard, before Golem marched out, carrying another load of dirt. He gave Dumbledore a grave nod as he passes, which was returned by the old man. Albus smiled then, as he watched the rock titan move towards the site Hagrid had designated as a dumping ground for the debris. "Oh, you've already surprised me O'Reily, you already have."

---TBC---

Next chapter, the gang gets a taste of American culture, Martial magic, and finds out which is better, a Glock or a Desert Eagle. Also, Harry and Draco stay after class and find out that their new teacher is a bit more knowledgeable about certain things than appearances are led to believe. And what's with the camaraderie between Shawn and Snape? Find out next time, but until then Read & Review!


	5. Alternative Teaching Methods

Harry Potter and the Rock of Ages

Hey folks, chapter five here. I'm sorry that this chapter is so late, and I hope that those of you still reading this will review it, and tell other readers about it. Remember, reviews are the lifeblood of any story on this site. And now…let the chaos begin!

Animeluvr1- Actually anime, Fred and George are only a year ahead of Harry and Ron, which puts them in sixth year. They left the school for good near the end of the fifth book. And where is it written that Blaise is a girl? And even if it IS written, I say that Blaise is a boy, and it's my story, so he is a he! And no, Ginny and Draco don't get a choice about it.

Blade- No problem man, here it be!

"AAA": normal speech 

**_"AAA"_**: dragon speech

-AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Disclaimer- Nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man.

Chapter 5- Alternative Teaching Methods

Harry and Ron ran, panting down the corridors, until they reached the DADA corridor. They had gotten stuck on a staircase as it was moving, and had ended up having to take a longer route to the class. They turned the final corner, and found a mixed bag of Slytherins and Gryffindors milling around the closed door to the DADA classroom, with the usual line of demarcation between the rival houses. The two found Hermione and Ginny in the crush, and joined up with them. "What's going on?" Harry asked, gesturing to the crowd of students. Ginny shrugged.

"The door's locked. We've all just been standing here for the last few minutes."

Hermione suddenly pointed and said "Well, I guess Malfoy was right about the whole power shift."

Harry followed his friend's finger, and found that Draco was no longer the center of Slytherin attention. He was hanging at the fringes of the Slytherins, near the door. Instead, Blaise had usurped Draco's former place in the center of the crowd, with Crabbe and Goyle looming behind him like twin mountains and Pansy hanging onto his arm. Harry moved through the crowd of students, hearing a strange murmur here or there. He shrugged them off, having heard all sorts of little rumors and suppositions over the years, frankly he was sick and tired of listening to them all. He came up level with Draco, and the two stared at each other, the students around them beginning to quiet down as the two continued to stare each other down. After a few moments, Harry nodded, and Draco nodded back.

"Malfoy."

"Potter"

"O'Reily," came the new teacher's voice, "Now that we know each other's last names, how about we get the first lesson started?" There was a general jump as the entire body of students realized that the door had opened and Shawn was leaning in the doorframe. "Come on in kids, and please don't try to take anything off of the walls. You'll receive a rather nasty, and literal, shock."

As the students filed in, there were gasps and whistles from the muggle-born students. The wizard-born portion of the class just didn't know what to make of the new décor.

Once again the layout and general feel of the classroom had changed. Where last year it had housed assorted objects devoted to the profession of an Auror, and the year before had had the entire classroom occupied with all sorts of strange and wondrous creatures, this year, it looked like an exceptionally bloody Rambo movie was having a yard sale. The walls were covered from nearly ceiling to floor with weapons. There were daggers, swords, handguns, rifles, throwing knives of all sorts, and assorted weapons that Harry thought would look quite at home in a Bruce Lee movie, such as bo's, nun-chucks, tonfa, kama and more.

A sniper rifle, a war hammer and a quarterstaff were situated behind the desk, crossed to look like a coat of arms, with the hammer in the center. The portions of the wall not covered by weapons had a large map of Hogwarts on the eastern wall, while posters of various people, mostly actors and a few comedians, and a few regular photos and a plaque or two, took up the remainder of the free space. Shawn meandered over to his desk, and sat down on it. "Get to your seats, put away your wands and we'll get on with this." The students groaned a bit at not being allowed to use their wands, but made their way to their seats, and sat down anyway.

As soon as everyone was seated, Shawn stood up. He had picked a yo-yo up off of the desk, and began to spin it in an even rhythm as he walked and talked.

"Okay, here's the deal, I'm not big on speeches so I'll make this short. There are only a few rules, follow them, and you'll stay on my good side. Break them, and you'll get on my bad side." He directed a even look across the entire classroom. "You don't want to get on my bad side. The Weasly twins yesterday? That was me in a pranking mood. A _nice_ pranking mood." He let the students imaginations fill in the blanks.

"Now, first off, I have absolutely **_no_** tolerance for suck-ups, brown nosers, rats, or general ass kissers. So don't think that trying to suck up to me will get you a higher **_anything_**. Second, I don't play favorites with **anyone**. I don't care how much gold your mommies and daddies have, or how old your family is, I only care about your _abilities_, nothing else. Third, there will be no discrimination, or any other form of harassment in my classroom. You try to bully someone, and I _will_ know. Even if I'm out of the classroom for whatever reason, I will know. These fellows," he said, gesturing to all the different posters, "will alert me, or another teacher if they can't find me." O'Reily clapped his hands twice, and barked "Look alive fellas!"

The posters along the walls suddenly sprang to life, as the different inhabitants of the pictures stretched out from the positions they had been posing in.

"Damn man!" a black man in a plain black suit and white shirt combo and wearing a pair of wrap around sunglasses exclaimed, rubbing at his neck. He was in a poster with "Back In Black" in big block letters along the bottom edge. "You think that you could have talked a little faster? I was about to freeze like that!"

"Shut your yap you sissy-boy!" another poster denizen snapped. This one was a rather weathered looking old soldier, his uniform bearing sergeants bars. He held a standard issue M-16 casually in both hands. The bottom of his poster simply said, "Gunny".

"Lay off of the guy Lee, I'm stiff too." This came from a man in a red-and-blue body suit and mask, which had large reflective "bug eyes". There was a network of black lines on the suit, making it look as if it were covered with some sort of spider web, while a large black spider was situated on his chest. He was hanging up-side down from a strand of some material. The bottom of his poster said "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility". The rest of the poster people made general noises of agreement with the spider man, except for two. One was a bald man with sunglasses. He merely leaned against the border of his poster, picking at his fingernails with a very lethal looking dagger. The bottom of his poster said "Riddick". The other was a large, imposing, Hispanic looking man in a pair of jeans and a plain white shirt. He merely arched his eyebrow, while seeming to stare at "Gunny" out of one eye. His poster said, "**Rock** on!" (AN: if you folks can't figure _that_ one out, then there's no hope for you, unless you just know nothing about wrestling.)

"These guys," Shawn said, ignoring the general noise, "are my eyes and ears in the school. They've been temporarily been connected to the network of paintings in the castle, so don't be alarmed if you see one of them strolling around."

"Now," he said, retrieving his yo-yo from where he had left it spinning in midair with a audible "snap!", "Are there any questions?" Several hands shot up immediately. Shawn pointed to one. "Yes… Hermione, right?"

She nodded, a bit flustered at the fact that he seemed to be just fine with being on first name basis with his students. "Yes Professor. I just wanted to know what you policy on homework is." Harry rolled hi eyes. Typical 'Mione. "And I'd like to know why we aren't going to be using our wands either sir." Shawn nodded.

"Fine, and just drop the whole professor thing, makes me feel old. Just call me Mr. O'Reily, or Shawn, whichever you want. About homework, I hate the stuff. I have better things to do than grade papers. And I'm sure that you all have better things to do than write them. Besides," he added with a grin, "You can only learn so much out of a book, and martial magic isn't one of them. There will only be in-class work, although I expect you all to practice what I teach out of class as much as possible." There were several cheers at this, both Slytherin and Gryffindor, though mostly Gryffindor, with Ron leading among the loudest of them. Hermione shot him a scalding look, but he shrugged it off.

"Secondly," O'Reily yelled, causing the cheers to die. "Secondly, you won't need your wands because I'll be teaching you all a variation of wand-less magic. It's somewhat complex, and a few of you might not be able to master enough of the basics to pass you OWLs. That's why I have a back-up plan for these people. But more on that later. Next," he said, pointing to Draco, whose hand was in the air.

"Sir, what does MIB stand for?"

"Where did you see those letters Draco?" Shawn asked, slightly surprised. Draco pointed to one of the two plaques hanging on the wall. "This Certificate is In Honor of Bravery in the Line of Duty for MIB Field Team Captain Shawn O'Reily," he read.

"Well Draco, MIB is short for Magical Investigations Bureau. It's basically the American equivalent to your Aurors, except that we don't restrict membership to wizards only and we're not exclusively American. We have members from all around the world, and of all different species. I'm the field team leader of Maverick team. How many of your kids know anything about a bunch of fictional characters called G.I. Joe?" Only a few hands went up. "So what do you know about them, ummm Neville, right?" Neville nodded.

"G.I. Joe is a fictional international group of soldiers dedicated to fighting against terrorism, especially the terrorist group Cobra. They're best known for their eccentric members, and flair for outrageous tactics." Neville started to look a little embarrassed, and said, "One of my uncles is a big fan of Muggle comic books, and he and I used to read them together when I and Gran went to visit him." Shawn waved the explanation aside.

"That's cool, I still play video games every chance I get." He frowned. "I can't play them here though, to much magical interference. Anyway, just think of me as another Duke. My team is pretty much a magic wielding version of the Joe team. Hell, we even have a Snake Eyes-like goblin. Any way, next question." He pointed to Ginny

"I was just wondering sir, what are all of these things exactly?" she asked, gesturing to the weapons on the walls. Shawn gave a predatory grin, and rubbed his hands together.

"I'm glad you asked Ginny. This is my collection. As you can probably tell, it's a weapons collection, all of them mundane weapons, including guns, weapons related to martial arts, and medieval weapons, such as swords, flails, maces and even a quiver and bow set. These three here," he said gesturing to the three above his desk, "Are my top three favorite weapons. But these, he said, walking to the southern wall, which was occupied almost solely by handguns, "Tie for my fourth favorite weapon." As the class watched him pick two handguns off of the wall, Ron noticed that there was a slight electric discharge into the air as he touched them. He shook his head.

'Electric discharge? What was that all about, I don't even know what those words mean!'

Shawn turned, walked over to the window, and opened it. "HEY NEDDLE NOGGIN! I NEED A PRACTICE TARGET UP HERE, HEAVY ON CLAY IF YOU CAN DO IT!" he yelled out of into the air. There was an answering roar from out on the grounds. Curiosity overcame obedience as the students left their seats and went over to the window, peering out. Out on the grounds, it appeared that a second year Care of Magical Creatures class was going on.

Hagrid was pointing out the features of a dragon that none of the students in the room had seen before. It was hard to make out details from here, but it was definitely aquatic, with a mane-like fin running down its spine, and a long crocodilian tail. It had an elongated neck, with a smallish, streamlined head. Reno and Mad Max were also lounging about, keeping an eagle eye (or dragon eye as the case may be), on the surrounding area. Ginny spotted a small shadow circling the grounds out of the corner of her eye, and looked up in an attempt to find the source, but was distracted when Golem lumbered into view, carrying a roughly squared off block of dirt or clay, about a foot thick.

The stone dragon lumbered over to where Max lay, and nudged the other reptile with the end of his stubby, but still limber tail. The two appeared to engage in a short conversation, in which the smaller dragon shifted the block to a single hand, and pointed up towards the window. Max nodded his head in agreement, stood up, and after taking the block from Golem, spread his wings and began to take off. Just as he lifted off, Dumbledore appeared on the grounds, leading Madame Umbridge around in a small tour of the premises. The portly woman was nearly knocked onto her backside by the backwash of the dragon's flight, but luckily, or not, Dumbledore managed to steady her in time.

Max flew steadily upwards, until he was level with the window, and began hovering about ten feet away from the open window. He held the block of earth out towards Shawn, who raised his hand, and made a motion as if throwing some sort of line at the block. Draco followed the supposed progress of the invisible line with one eye, and was startled to see an indentation form on the section of the block that O'Reily had been aiming at. He raised one brow, looking from the teacher to the block of dirt and back again. O'Reily made a yanking motion with both hands, as if pulling on a rope of some sort. The block of earth was yanked from the dragon's claws, flew through the window, and would have hit the American in the face if he hadn't held up one hand, and shouted "_IMOBULIS_!" Immediately, the block stopped in midair. Shawn pointed to the window ledge, and snapped his fingers. The block floated to the ledge, and settled with a "thud".

"Now," O'Reily said in a brisk manner, "These," he displayed the two handguns to the students, "are handguns. This one is the Glock model 18." Shawn held up a light-looking, black pistol. "The Glock is accurate, it's light, and it has a special safety feature built into it. A single shot in the right place is deadly. Stand back from the target please." So saying, he strode away from the block of earth, turned, and leveled the gun at the target. "You might want to cover your ears." Harry, Hermione and the rest of the muggle-born students did so with out comment, while the wizard-born students just looked at him, as if to say, "There is no way that little muggle thing can make too much noise." Shawn fired.

The report was so loud that a few of the wizard-born students dropped as if they had been shot themselves, they were so shocked. Ron and Ginny had both dubiously copied their friend's movements, and were extremely glad that they had. Shawn spun the gun around on his finger once, in true gun-slinger style, before setting it down on a vacant desk and walking over to the block. "Get up, none of you are hurt," he said, passing a few of the downed students. They came shakily to their feet, and gaped at him. "This," he said, pointing to a clean hole through the block, "is what a gun of this caliber is capable of. Now, this other gun is the DE Magnum, aka the Desert Eagle, and is also called "The Hand-Cannon" in some circles." Shawn displayed a much heavier looking gun, with a chrome polish. "The recoil from firing this particular gun can break your shoulder if you're not careful. Observe what it does to this block, and remember that this clay is about the consistency of human flesh."

Shawn walked back to the point he had fired from previously, leveled the Magnum, waited a moment for the students to cover their ears, and fired. There was a marked difference in the results of the shot. Last time when he had fired, the bullet had merely put a hole through the block. _This_ time however, the block _exploded_ in a shower of clay and dirt, which rained down on the class. "And THAT!" he yelled over the dismayed exclamations from the girls (and a few boys) at getting dirty, "Is why they call it the Hand-Cannon!" He tilted the gun barrel up so that the tip of the barrel was parallel with his face, and casually blew the smoke off of the tip.

Suddenly the door burst open, and Professor McGonagall raced in, looking a little disheveled. "What was that noise?!" she demanded. She took in the mess of the classroom with a quick glance, before she spotted the gun still in the American's hand. "MR. O'REILY!" she yelped. Shawn looked at her quizzically.

"What?"

"What in the world do you think you are doing? Don't you realize how dangerous those weapons are? One of the students could seriously injure themselves, or worse!" Shawn's eyes went flat then, and his response was cold, and carried the tone of someone who had been mortally offended.

"Professor, I am perfectly aware of how dangerous these weapons are, and am also perfectly aware of the consequences of leaving them out unprotected where any person could just grab them off of the wall. I assure you that I have taken all possible precautions against them falling into student hands, or any other hands for that matter. I've taken the liberty of placing several protection charms on every single piece of equipment in this room, as well as a ward that will administer a large dose of electrical energy to anyone attempting to remove them from their places. These wards are attuned to my magical signature, and will only deactivate when I am actually handling the weapon. And as to your concerns about my demonstration of the destructive capabilities of these weapons, I am certified to wield each and every one of them by the MIB. Now if you would excuse me, I have a class to finish!" With that, he turned and strode to where he had taken the guns from in the first place, and replaced them in their proper places. McGonagall blinked owlishly for a moment.

"Very well then," she said in a dazed tone, and turned and left the room. As the door closed, Shawn turned back to face the class, and gave them a dazzling grin. Harry heard Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil sigh, and felt like heaving a sigh himself, although out of exasperation.

"Now then, let's get this place cleaned up, and then I'll outline what I have planned for this year." He walked to the back of the class, where it was cleanest, and settled into a crouch akin to one that Harry had seen when he had seen a martial arts movie on television once while staying at Ms. Figg's place. He raised one hand in front of him, open and palm out. A look of concentration came over his face, as he closed his hand into a fist. As he was doing this, the dirt laying scattered around the class began to hover in the air, before rushing towards a central point, just in front of Shawn's loosely closed fist. Shawn tightened his fist up suddenly, and the debris came together, forming a large orb of fused dirt. He came up out of his crouch, the look of concentration disappearing as the orb of dirt fell to the floor with a solid "thud". "That," he said, "Was an example of martial magic, combined with a special talent of mine. I'm a terra-magus. Does anyone here know what…" he trailed off, and pointed to Hermione, whose hand had shot up before the question had even been finished.

"A terra-magus is a person who has the ability to manipulate earth in any way they chose including shapes and even weapons, and communicate to creatures which have an extremely deep connection to the earth, including some types of magical trees and plants." Shawn nodded.

"Very good Hermione, five points to Gryffindor." There was a hiss of malice from the Slytherins, but that stopped almost immediately, once Shawn fixed them with an icy glare. He nodded. "That's better. Now, on to my goals for this year. First off, we need to prepare you for OWLs. Since you'll be learning a rather obscure branch of magic, the Ministry has requested that a master of Martial Magic come to test you on your knowledge. I am going to attempt to teach you all a blend of offensive and defensive techniques, because that is the style I myself use. This particular style combines elements of Tae Kwan Do, which involves grapples and throws, and Karate, which is more focused on quick strikes and blocks with both the feet and the fists. Some people are better at one type of fighting than the other, so I'll try and adjust my teaching to accommodate each of you, so that you are all learning to the best of you're abilities."

"Next," he continued with a gleam in his eye, "I will also be teaching all of you to summon a Patronus, using martial magic." There were several exclamations of surprise. Dean stood up and blurted, "But that's impossible sir!" Shawn shook his head.

"Not so impossible, Harry is able to summon one." Padma shook her head.

"But he's Harry _Potter_ sir!" Harry flushed in embarrassment, and scrunched down in his seat to avoid the looks, some accusing, others just looks. Shawn shook his head.

"The fact that Harry has been able to summon a Patronus has nothing to do with his fame, it merely means that he has had additional training. Isn't that right Harry?" Harry, finding himself the center of attention, nodded weakly. Shawn made a "there you go" gesture with his hand. "Actually, summoning a Patronus is actually easier when you aren't using a wand to channel the power. A little known fact is that a wand can only handle so much power, and a Patronus may sometimes be so strong that the wand can't handle it and the spell will fail for that reason. Observe please."

Shawn once more settled into a crouch as the class fell silent, this time with both his hands cupped together on one side of his body. "_Expecto__…**Patronum**_" As he cast the spell, his cupped hands filled with a bluish-white light. As he finished, he thrust his hands forward, propelling the ball of light forward. In mid-air, the ball seemed to explode, forming into a ghostly… kangaroo? The phantom marsupial bounded over the heads of two rows of students, heading for one of the walls, kicked off of the wall, preformed a back-flip in midair, and landed squarely in front of Shawn, where it began to shadowbox at a furious pace. After one last roundhouse, it faded away. The students sat there in stunned silence.

"Another little known fact about the Patronus is that it may sometimes take on the attributes of the caster of the spell, which is reflected in the shape that the Patronus takes. My own spell takes the shape of a kangaroo, as you just saw. Kangaroos are well known for their fighting abilities, as well as a certain sense of playfulness and mischief, as am I." Shawn said in a bored tone, as if discussing the weather.

"Now," he continued, looking at a small clock in the corner, "Before you leave, I would like to speak to Draco and Harry after class." Before Draco and Harry could protest, the chimes signaling the end of class sounded. Everyone filed out, except for Harry and Draco. As they went out the door, Hermione and Ron shot Harry looks of pity, which were followed almost immediately by a look of triumph from Blaise as he exited the room, followed by his cronies.

"Come on up guys, we have urgent business to discuss," Shawn said, motion for the to join him up at his desk. The two trooped up to the desk.

"Mr. O'Reily, may I enquire as to why you wish to speak with us?" Draco asked. Harry nodded in agreement.

"I like the fact that you get straight to the point Draco, but you don't have to sugar-coat it with fancy wording. The reason is quite simple. As my new teammates, I need to tell you both a bit more about those pendants of yours, and explain exactly what's going on." Harry and Draco exchanged questioning looks. How in the world did he know about the pendants?

"Sir, I'm not sure we follow. And what do you mean by new teammates?" Harry asked. Shawn laughed, and reached into his shirt. He pulled out a copper pendant, shaped like a mountain peak. Both boys felt a power coming off of it, a sort of timeless immovability, as if it was a real mountain, standing tall in the distance.

"That answer you question?" he asked with a grin. Draco moaned, and held his head in his hand. 'I knew that this year was going to be a bad one,' he thought.

---TBC---

Next chapter, Shawn explains what the pendants he and the two rivals have are for. Plus, we're introduced to the rest of Shawn's motley crew of dragons, including another pair of sibling dragons, as well as find out exactly what has taken up residence on top of the Gryffindor's tower.


	6. History Lessons and Dinner Guests

Harry Potter and the Rock of Ages

AN: My rendition of Puck is taken from the second book of Christopher Stasheff's "A Wizard in Rhyme" series, "The Oathbound Wizard". I own a copy of it, but not the publishing rights.

"AAA": normal speech

**_"AAA"_**: dragon speech

-AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Disclaimer: "You knew Christ?" "Knew 'em? Brother owed me twelve bucks!"

Chapter 6- History Lessons and Dinner Guests

Shawn looked at Draco, who still had his head in his hands, to Harry, who was doing his best impression of a goldfish at the moment, mouth opening and closing in astonishment. He got up from his desk and motioned for the boys to follow him. "Step into my office boys, we got some things to discuss, and I'd rather not have a certain toady stumbling in here on "accident"." He gave the word air quotes as he spoke, and Harry couldn't help but laugh a little, breaking his trance and a bit of the tension that had been hanging in the room. Draco looked up to see what his nemesis was laughing about, then groaned once he saw, and placed his head back in his hands. Suddenly a rough voice, sounding as if the owner had tried to gargle broken glass and nails at one point, spoke up from behind him.

"He's not really that bad, just a little nuts. If you get used to his little quirks you'll see he's more than he appears." Draco spun to see which of the posters had talked to him, but all he saw was Gunny and Riddick, both cleaning their weapons and looking as if they hadn't said a word. Draco sighed and followed Harry up the stairway to O'Reily's personal office. Inside was different than the actual classroom, but only because Major was perched on top of a coat rack. There were a few more pictures in here, some muggle, others magical, all in color.

One picture showed a large group of people gathered together, all facing the camera. There was a tall red headed man in back who, if he had had some freckles, could have easily passed as a Weasly. He was grinning and flashing a peace sign. On his shoulder sat a Macaque monkey in a pair of shorts and a little vest that bulged with pockets, who was also giving the camera a sign, though not exactly of peace. Next to them was a beefy looking black man with a toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth. He wore a black cap and leather trench-coat, and was hefting a shotgun easily in both hands, while eyeing the monkey with a definite gleam in his eye. In the center of the picture, Shawn was standing back to back with what at first glance appeared to be a giant Grindylow in a pair of tattered jeans, wrap-around sunglasses, and a vest. Except that it resembled a shark more than the scaly monsters he had faced on the lake bottom last year. Both of them were facing the camera, and smiling roguishly. At the edge of the photo lurked a diminutive figure clad all in black. Bright brown eyes peered out from a hood, while the bottom of his face was obscured by a long red scarf. The only thing that was actually visible was a long pointed nose. Standing next to the black figure was unmistakable for anything else but a dwarf, dressed in a tan uniform. His black beard was close cropped, while steel blue eyes glared out at the world. Slung over his shoulder was a rocket launcher. "Um, Mr. O'Reily, who're they?" Harry asked, pointing to the picture. Draco looked at the picture as well, intrigued. Shawn looked at it for a moment, and smiled. His answer was short, but full of affection, like an older brother for his siblings (AN: HAH!)

"That's my team."

Shawn sat down in a large, overstuffed chair, and gestured for the two students to do the same. They did, still looking slightly bewildered. Shawn steepled his hands and looked at them, all business for once. Seeing the happy-go-lucky MIB operative sizing the two of them up like criminals in a line-up gave Harry and Draco chills. "Now," he said, leaning back in his chair, "I know that you both know that you are the avatars of Light," at this he gestured to Harry, "and Darkness." This time he gestured to Draco. "Now, I myself am the avatar of Earth." Harry opened his mouth to make a comment, but Shawn held up a hand, and he sank back in his chair. "In time I'm going to explain to you what all of this means, but for you both to fully understand exactly what is going on, a (somewhat) brief history lesson is needed first."

He took a deep breath before launching into a speech. "The Elemental Avatars are the human representations of the elements. To understand how they came about we need to take a small trip back in time. Eons ago, when even the magical races such as the elves, goblins and dwarves were barely in their infancy, and just beginning to realize their powers, the elements were represented by eight dragons, seven with complete power over a single element. The eighth was their "father", Chaos. Now, these dragons were powerful in their own right, each able to do great and wonderful things with their abilities. However, Chaos topped them all."

"But," he paused, "Chaos was a strange dragon. He drew his power from a twisting nether that exists on a plane separate from our own, where masses of sentient energy, both good and evil, exist in an ongoing war. The status of this war is even now mirrored by the state of our own fragile world. Chaos had drawn on the powers of both the Good and, to a lesser extent, the Evil energies to create his "children", giving them the ability to choose their own destinies. The dragons of Light, Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning, and Wind chose to stay together and help their "father" watch over the earth and its inhabitants. The dragon of Darkness however, chose to walk alone, leaving his brothers and sisters to do as they pleased, so long as they left him the hell alone."

Shawn paused for breath, before reaching behind him and opening a drawer on the desk sitting behind him. He pulled out a bottle of something green and fizzy and took a swallow from it, before offering it to the boys. They shook their heads, eyeing the unknown concoction with wary eyes. Shawn shrugged and set it down beside his chair, before continuing.

"Anyway, three of these sentient beings I mentioned earlier were starting to get a little tired of the war they were fighting. Each one was a powerful force of Evil on their own, but together they were almost deities. Each brought to the table a different ability, and by combining their talents they planned to escape the plane of existence they were trapped in, and find new hunting grounds so to speak, someplace with easy pickings." Shawn paused, and Draco nodded in understanding.

"They came here." Shawn nodded. Harry's eyebrows creased as a thought crossed his mind. "But how could they get here if they were trapped in their home plane?" he blurted. Shawn nodded once more.

"An excellent question, for which I have a long and complicated answer," Shawn smiled. "When Chaos had drawn on his powers to create his "children", he had to widen the connection between himself and the other plane to get the required power. That connection was still open, though Chaos guarded it; constantly on watch. However," Shawn continued, "the three entities bided their time, and managed to catch Chaos unawares as he slept. They overpowered the great dragon, and destroyed his mind. Now, the three entities were faced with a problem. They were composed of pure energy, which was even now contained within Chaos' corpse. If they attempted to leave the body, they would dissipate into pure magical force, without will or motivation of their own. Finally though, they hit upon an idea, and used Chaos' very flesh to construct bodies for themselves, according to their preference and powers.

One took the majority of his bones, as well as some skin, while another took the great sac of fire Chaos' body contained, and a portion of his muscles and skin. The final one took Chaos' mind, which contained magics not even known to the elves, then the most skilled at wielding their magic, some skin, and a fair amount of muscle as well. And as each finished fashioning their body, each took a name. The first took the title The Necromancer, the second went under the name Surt, and the third became The Djinn. And these creatures were the first of _their_ kind." Shawn paused in the telling, looking grim indeed.

"What kind exactly are you talking about Mr. O'Reily," Draco asked, seeming to choke on the 'Mr.'. Harry opened his mouth to tell the Malfoy off for his disrespect, but Shawn gave a wry grin, noticing the catch in the Slytherins speech. "You can both just call me Shawn. It's less time consuming." He reached down and took another swig of the drink. He looked at the bottle, then at the boys.

"You two _sure_ you don't want any? It's only Mt. Dew after all." Harry and Draco exchanged puzzled looks. "Oh for the love of…! Don't you two know what pop is?!" Harry's face brightened, while Draco's still remained clueless. "It's a mundane drink, basically it's just lots of sugar, caffeine, and flavoring mixed into carbonated water. It's really good." Draco shook his head, his lip curling slightly as his mind instantly connected "mundane" with "muggle", which in Draco's mind, immediately made it synonymous with "worthless". Shawn caught the sneer, and frowned, but shook it off. 'There'll be time to address his prejudices later,' he thought to himself. "May I try some?" Harry asked, ever polite to teachers (well, most of the time anyway). Shawn handed over the bottle and, as Harry took a swig, answered Draco's question.

-A Few Minutes Ago, Out in the Hall-

Ginny stood outside the door to the DADA classroom and knocked once more. No answer. She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side as she looked at the locked door. 'They should have come down to dinner by now,' she thought. Suddenly a saccharine sweet voice came from behind her. "Hem, hem. Excuse me, little girl, but what business do you have here?" Ginny went board stiff for a moment, before nearly giving into the urge to sigh in exasperation. She turned round to find Madame Umbridge behind her, a condescending smile on her large toad-like face. Ginny did her best to return the smile, but couldn't quite match the total superiority that the woman seemed to radiate. So she settled for her best innocent look, a tactic picked up from watching Fred and George barely slip out from under their mother's wrath time and time again, or redirecting that same wrath towards the twins if she needed to.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but a friend of mine had to stay after class, and I was wondering whether or not they had finished their business with Mr. O'Reily." Umbridge frowned at that. "Young lady, it is customary to refer to a teacher by the title "Professor". I would like it if you would remember that in the future." Another voice coming from up on the wall interrupted the two.

"Hey, ya'll don't need to be so uptight 'bout that kind of stuff. Besides, he told the kids to call him that!" The woman and the girl looked up towards the voice, to find two of the "poster people" from O'Reily's classroom standing in a large picture of a rocky field with a few cattle. One of them, a well muscled man with shoulder length brownish-blonde hair wearing a yellow vest and a pair of belted leather pants, who looked to be in his thirties; wasn't the one who had spoken, seeing as he was talking animatedly to the satyr that was the normal resident of the painting. The other one was the black man in the suit and tie that had complained about freezing in position during Shawn's class. He was glancing at Umbridge over the tops of his sunglasses with a look of contempt. Umbridge, sensing an attack on her authority, drew herself up to her full height and glared at the man(…painting…being…person…aw hell, you get the idea!).

"And _who_ would you be?" she asked coolly. The man gave her a predatory grin as he answered. "The name's Jay you reject from a bad sci-fi flick. Whassa matter, 'The Attack of the Toad Men from Mars' already have someone cast as the Ugly Queen of the Invaders?" Umbridge seemed to puff up at the insults, looking very much like an affronted toad actually. Ginny did her best to stifle a giggle.

"Sir, I can see that your manners are worse than those of that goat footed heathen's," Umbridge snapped at the man, pointing at the satyr. This caught the attention of the man who was talking with said heathen. Jay clutched his hands to his chest as if wounded and did a silly looking stagger backwards. "Ouch, cut me to the quick with that one. And by the way, goats have hooves, not feet." he choked out through a laugh. Then a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Jay looked back to see his companion, who was looking a tad bit irritated. "Jay, did I just hear her say what I thought I heard?" he asked in a to-pleasant alto voice. The younger looking man nodded, guessing what had just gotten stuck in his friends' craw. He stepped aside with a sweeping half-bow, and grinned at Ginny. "Lay into her H, just don't get _to_ nasty."

Umbridge was a little startled by this, but her eyes narrowed and her self righteousness pride asserted itself, hard. "You know, when _I_ was at Hogwarts, paintings knew their place." She smirked at the two, but was somewhat shocked to see the man smiling pityingly. "And what time would that be?" he asked. Jay couldn't resist.

"The Jurassic time period of course!" Ginny couldn't help it, she laughed out loud. Umbridge glared at the girl, but had forgotten what offense the girl had committed. "Why don't you go back to the Great Hall, _dear_," she said in a patronizing tone, the 'dear' said in a tone usually reserved for dogs and exceptionally young children. Ginny's back went rigid as she prepared to deliver a blistering retort to this flabby cow, but stopped when she saw Jay motioning to her to leave. He winked at her as the other man started to lay into Umbridge about the fact that even if they _were_ paintings, they still had identities, and feelings _and_ that if he heard her talking about a non-human like that again he would report her to the NHBRA (Non-Human Being Rights Association)!

As Jay watched the girl go, he made a mental note to think of a wittier, more pronounceable name for the non-existent authority for non-human rights for the next time Hercules decided that the school's faculty needed a good talking to.

Ginny stifled yet another giggle as the man lit into Umbridge, while the satyr and Jay sat on one of the rocks in the background, munching on a bag of popcorn Jay had produced from somewhere. As she headed down to the Great Hall, she shook her head. Ron, Hermione and the newest addition to 'their' table, Kainda, were going to be disappointed that she hadn't found Harry, or Draco in Kainda's case, but they were going to have a _ball_ hearing about Umbridge getting chewed out by a couple of _paintings_! As she went down the steps, she couldn't help but wonder what on earth Mr. O'Reily could have to say to the two boys. He hadn't even been there a week! She shrugged the stray thought away as she stepped into the Great Hall and went to report to Hermione and Ron.

She snickered to herself as she saw Ron giving Hermione covert glances whenever she wasn't looking, while she would do the same to him when his attention was off of her. Kainda was looking somewhere between confused and amused at their antics, but hadn't said anything to either of them. She looked up at Ginny and grinned. "So," she said, loudly enough to jolt Hermione from her current bout of 'Ron-watching', "Did you find them?" Ginny hid her smile as she answered.

"No, they were still in the room." Ginny pulled up a chair as she said it, and pulled a plate towards her. Ron was looking over his schedule again, and was looking somewhat dismayed. "Something wrong?" Kainda asked, trying to see what had gotten him bummed. Ron shifted his shoulder a little to let Kainda see.

"So you've got History of Magic tomorrow, what's so bad about that?" Ron shook his head at the girl's naiveté. "Correction, we've got HoM directly before dinner! That's inhumane! Listening to Binns drone on and on about nothing but goblin rebellions just upsets my stomach!" Hermione and Ginny gave unladylike snorts at the thought of _anything_ making Ron unable to eat dinner. Ron looked at them indignantly, then turned to glare at Kainda as she laughed out loud, not even trying to hide her amusement.

"HEY!" He protested. The girls ignored him, and Ginny smirked.

"You're never going to believe what I heard on the way down from Mr. O'Reily's classroom," she smirked before launching into a recounting of Umbridge's royal humiliation at the hands of a pair of paintings.

-Back with our intrepid heroes-

Draco and Harry's mouths hung open in identical expressions of shock at what their teacher had just said. Draco recovered first. "Mr., um, I mean, Shawn; could you please repeat what you just said, because I _can't_ have heard you right. They were the first _WHAT_?!?" Shawn's grin was somewhat forced.

"Demons Draco, demons. You know, those big red things with the horns and pitchforks?" Draco flushed at the slight patronizing tone, while Harry just sat there, the goldfish impression back in force. Shawn sighed. 'I'd better just wrap this up, I think that's about all they can handle for now.'

"Anyway, to make a long story short, the three demons created three armies, one for each demon, and began to systematically destroy the earth. The races fought against them of course, at first separately, then as a huge coalition. It was the only time in the history of the world when Dwarves, Elves and Goblins worked together willingly towards a common goal. This coalition was backed up by the massed might of six of the Elemental Dragons. Darkness had kept to his lair, and when asked to help, had blatantly told them to get bent. He had staked out a small portion of the countryside as his own, protecting it and the inhabitants in his own way, and figured so long as the demon kings ,as they were being called by then, left him and his alone he would be fine. But they didn't, and he joined forces with his siblings to eradicate the demons. There was a huge battle, in which the demon kings met the dragons in combat. Both sides were deadlocked, but the dragons had an ace up their sleeves, so to speak." At this Harry and Draco looked at Shawn.

"What did they do?" Draco asked flatly, wishing that this story was over and he could go down for dinner. Harry didn't say anything, but his stomach made gurgling noises, letting him know that it was time to fill the tank. Shawn smiled at the sound, and continued.

"They used their energies to seal the demons and their armies inside the one part of Chaos that they, the demons that is, they had been unable to either use or destroy. His heart. Unfortunately, the demon kings managed to get in one last counter stroke, destroying all but one of the dragons, and leaving that one mortally wounded. It was Earth. He knew that Chaos' heart would only hold the kings for so long before something, or someone, attempted to release them for some reason. So, with the last of his energy, he created seven pendants and seven stone eggs, and as he lay dying, asked the gathered sages of the coalition to bind a portion of his and his siblings lingering powers to the eggs and pendants, and then to give the pendants and eggs over to the spirits who had agreed to watch over Chaos' heart. Exactly half of the power was bound to each item, and the eggs were bound in stasis by a spell, so that they would only awaken when the ones meant to posses the pendants were born. The rest, as they say, is history." Shawn got up from his seat, stretched, and looked at the boys, judging how they were absorbing this information. It didn't look good.

Harry was just sitting there, one hand in a position as if holding something, eyes staring straight ahead. The bottle of pop had long since dropped to the ground, nerveless fingers being unable to grasp the bottle, much like his minds attempts to grasp exactly what Shawn was telling them. Draco's eyes were bugged and somewhat glazed as well. The only activity was that he was rubbing his pendant between thumb and forefinger, like some sort of worry stone. Shawn fought the urge to sigh. 'Well,' he thought, 'I didn't take it much better when Bison told me that story.' He briefly remembered when he was a teen, having the dream-vision come to him as he slept in his Potions class. Bison had been **_huge_**, a towering wall of shaggy hair topped by obsidian horns. He had been a rather gentle soul though, and quite the storyteller if Shawn's memory served. He broke from his revere as Harry twitched. Once, twice, then three times. Shawn hoped that the boy wasn't having some sort of seizure.

Suddenly Draco looked up at the man. His eyes were wide and wild, and deep down in them, Shawn could see the smallest flicker of fear. 'He's figured it out,' Shawn thought, and suddenly felt like a battle scarred veteran cop, watching a rookie as he realized that there were no safety guarantees in their chosen line of work. It made him feel vastly older than he really was. 'I wonder if this is how Dumbledore feels,' he thought sardonically. Harry finished twitching and gave a long sigh, one that seemed to convey the weight of the world being dropped on his shoulders. Again. The black haired teen looked at Shawn, and there was a question in his eyes. A question both he and Draco spoke aloud.

"Why us?" Shawn sighed and leaned a hip against his desk. He had thought on that question hundreds of times throughout his career as an MIB agent, and only one answer had come to him.

"Because there's no one else. Let's face it guys, these things are coming back. Voldemort has gotten hold of something DAMN powerful, and he's going to try to use it to swell his ranks somehow. So we've been tapped." Shawn stood up then. "I think that that's as much information as you guys can handle for one debriefing. Let's go get some grub." Harry and Draco traded confused glances, before they remembered that they were sworn enemies, and jerked away from each other. Shawn caught the confusion, and chuckled.

"Sorry, it's an American phrase. It means 'let's eat'." At that the two boy's faces brightened. They were growing adolescent boys after all, so food was high on the "Important" list. Right up there with girls and Quidditch. They obediently followed their teacher down the stairs. As they were going down the final set of stairs a piercing shriek of terror cut through the air. Shawn's muscles tensed and his training kicked in. He jumped over the railing and landed in a crouch, immediately breaking into a dead run for the Great Hall. Harry and Draco were hot on his heels, but neither could really keep up with the agent in a flat-out run. The three burst into the Great Hall, and Shawn skidded to a halt, Draco and Harry slamming ungracefully into his back and nearly bowling him over.

Inside the hall, everyone's attention seemed riveted on three people. The first was Dumbledore, but he was merely a casualty. The next was Peeves. The poltergeist was attempting to hide under the headmaster's hat, and was failing miserably. He was babbling unintelligibly, saying things like "Don't let him get me!" and "Hide me, hide me!" But it was the third figure, the one who had caused the scream, and was no doubt the cause of Peeves' behavior as well, that had Shawn skidding to a stop and turning an extremely interesting shade of pale green. Shawn stared at the tiny figure for a moment, before turning his gaze to the ceiling, and asking in a plaintive voice, "Was I Hitler or something in a past life, cause I had to have done some **_god_**-awful things to deserve _this_!" The figure threw back his head and laughed, his voice surprisingly deep for someone so small.

He was a strange little man, all-in-all. He looked like a tiny, perfectly formed human being; as browned as a fresh loaf of bread. He wore a kilt, and had a feather stuck in his hair. If it weren't for the feather, the students that could actually see him would have mistaken him for a nut.

They would later decide that they had been right the first time.

Dumbledore, ignoring the quivering mass of poltergeist currently attempting to burrow farther into his hat, quirked an eyebrow at Shawn. "A… friend, of yours, Mr. O'Reily?" he asked, his eyes twinkling. Shawn sighed and slumped into a chair. Harry and Draco remained on their feet, along with the rest of the school, who were craning their necks to see what had caused such an uproar. Shawn gave a long-suffering sigh. "You could say that," he said wearily.

The miniature human laughed once more, and seemed to wink out of existence, accompanied by a small popping noise. He reappeared on top of the American's head, sitting quite comfortably with his hands behind his head, and one knee crossed over the other. "'You could say that' he says," the mannequin snorted, before fixing his gaze on Dumbledore. "Mortal, don't you know The Puck when you see him? Have I truly been gone so long that only the spooks and sprites remember my form and face?" Dumbledore _almost_ looked shocked for a moment, but it never quite manifested itself on his face. Suddenly Peeves' head stuck out from under the headmaster's hat.

"You are a legend, a myth! Used to inspire and control young sprites!" Then his eyes widened as he realized just who he was calling a myth, and ducked back into the hat. Dumbledore rose. "Mr. O'Reily, I think that we should discuss this matter in my office please." Shawn stayed put.

"Sorry Al, but he is who and what he says he is, and he ain't goin' nowhere. No matter _what_ I do. During a mission, I accidentally freed him from a binding spell a sorcerer had placed on him centuries ago, trapping him in a statue. The reason he's following _me_ is because he helped me out of a jam and is waiting for me to return the favor." Puck stood up then, interrupting the narrative.

"Aye. It should be well known mortal, that when you accept aid from one such as I, we expect the favor to be paid in full." Shawn sighed.

"Till debt do us part." Puck nodded from his perch.

"Or the discharge of it, whichever should come first," the sprite finished. Dumbledore nodded in understanding.

"Then you are welcome in this castle, provided you do no harm to the students here." Puck nodded, accepting the terms, when Umbridge stood up suddenly. He face was livid and her eyes seemed to protrude all the more because of her rage.

"Headmaster, surely it is against school policy to allow this, this savage little _brute_ into this institution!" She opened her mouth to say more, but instead of words, a series of frog-like croaks issued from her throat. She slapped a flabby hand over her mouth, her face mottling as her rage skyrocketed. Shawn held up his hand at hair level, allowing Puck to step into his palm. "I assume that was you?" he asked the sprite, bringing him down to face level. Puck shrugged.

"Feh, maybe." Shawn had to bite the inside of his check so hard he drew blood to keep from smirking. "Let me guess, I owe you another favor now?" Shawn chuckled quietly. Puck shook his head.

"That one was… what was the expression? Ah yes, 'on the house'."

As the newest upset to hit the school was being discussed by the students, no one noticed a woman slip into the hall and seat herself at an out of the way table next to Professors Vector and Sinistra. She ate her meal quickly, chatting every now and then with the other women, then retreated . As Shawn hunkered down to eat, his eyes flickered to the unknown figure, and a small smile flitted across his features. Behind him, Umbridge continued to make distressed croaking sounds, which Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick were trying desperately to cure her off.

In a far corner of the hall, Fred and George discussed this new development, and how it might be turned to their advantage.

After dinner, Harry met with Ron, Hermione and Ginny in the common room. The boy slumped down on one of the over stuffed chairs, and held up his pendant to eye level, staring at it blankly.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Ginny decided that she couldn't take it anymore. She always had been impatient.

"Well?!"

Harry's head snapped up, and he looked at her curiously, as if he'd only just noticed she was there. He then went back to looking thoroughly miserable. He remembered Shawn's comment about how he must have been Hitler in a past life and smiled humorlessly. He could understand the feeling.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I've battled everything from giant chess pieces to Lord Voldemort-" Ron gave an involuntary shudder, Hermione paled, and Ginny bit her lip to fight her gag reflex, "and even I can hardly believe it."

As he went on to relate Shawn's tale, their expressions went from slightly off-put to somewhere between disbelief and horror. Ginny was the first to recover, with a surprising question.

"What about Draco?"

Harry wasn't sure if he was more surprised at her thoughtfulness or her use of Malfoy's first name.

"Why do you even care?" Ron asked rudely. Hermione bopped him lightly on the shoulder, though her heart wasn't really in it.

"Well, it's just…" Ginny bit her lip again, a nervous habit, "I mean… he doesn't have this, right? He doesn't have anyone to talk this over with in his Common Room."

Harry only shrugged.

"Well," Ron managed with a nervous laugh, "I think I can say that, without a doubt, this is the, well… it's the most fucked up year to date, mate."

Harry merely rubbed his eyes tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose where his glasses had left small red marks.

His first thought was to write Sirius. He then remembered, with growing melancholy, that Sirius had insisted that he "see Harry at school."

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Harry looked up at his friends, and turned to Ron and Hermione. Ginny huffed slightly over being left out.

"I think I'll write Snuffles in the morning, but right now, I just have to… I don't know." He slumped deeper into his chair. "I don't know." He repeated helplessly.

No one got very much sleep that night.

---To Be Continued---

Well, if anyone besides Animeluvr is still reading this, I'm sorry that I kind of lied last time. You WILL meet the other dragons next chapter, not to mention a new addition to the faculty at Hogwarts being introduced. Until next time, which will be much sooner, any suggestions are welcome, and Read & Review!

Animeluvr1- I would like to give you my most heartfelt thanks for agreeing to beta for me. Thanks for the great ending too!

Raelina- Thanks. Yes, the weapons will come into play soon, and I think you might be surprised at who asks about them first.


	7. The Things People Fight Over

Harry Potter and the Rock of Ages

"AAA": normal speech

**_"AAA"_**: dragon speech

AAA-: reading

"_AAA_": spells

Disclaimer: "Most of us know, the mask we hide behind is garbage. Sooner or later it shatters. And then, you find out what type of man you really are." - "In Hell"

Chapter 6- Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic

The next morning found Harry still in something of a daze. Ron was giving face-cracking yawns every few minutes, a testimony to the fact that he hadn't gotten much sleep either. They waited for a little while, until their roommates had left, before Harry took out a piece of parchment and a quill, to write the letter to Sirius. This is what it ended up looking like:

Snuffles,

New DADA professor is just a little bit insane. Taking me with him. Dragged into the usual mess- it only took me a week this time. New record. There's a ministry worker here named Umbridge- and the pun is apparently intended. Malfoy and I are on a truce. _Whole school has gone nutters. _–H.

Afterwards, Harry and Ron meandered their way down to the common room. Hermione and Ginny met them there, and the four of them made their way down to breakfast.

"You know," Hermione said as they made their way down the stairs, "Maybe there's something in the library about all of- oh honestly Ron!" She admonished the older Weasley as his lips twitched into a smile. Harry had to hide his own smile as Hermione swatted at Ron with a book that could have qualified as a minor weapon. Ron ducked in time though, laughing as he did, thus breaking the tension that had been hanging over the group.

The tension returned somewhat as the group entered the Great Hall. Draco and Kainda were sitting at the same table as yesterday. Draco looked as if he hadn't slept at all, his usually perfectly coifed hair mussed, and small bags beneath his eyes giving him a disheveled look. Harry could have _sworn_ that Ginny had shot the Slytherin a sympathetic glance, but he blinked, and her face was as normal. He scowled slightly, but schooled his own face into a look of nonchalance.

A sound of singing suddenly caught the groups attention, as heads once more turned. A very grumpy looking O'Reily was stalking through the door, with Puck flitting about his head, singing "Bad Boys (Whatcha Gonna Do?)" very loud and just a tad off-key in his ear like a five-year old. Shawn looked as though he'd like nothing better than to kill him in a very long, slow manner with exquisite attention to detail.

Instead, he sat down at a table, and knocked for his coffee. When it appeared, he took it and began to sip, glaring at Puck all the while, who was still singing.

"Tell me again why I don't transfigure my mug into a rolled newspaper and give you the Garfield spider special?" he asked. Puck stopped singing, and landed on the table in front of the teacher, and began ticking off points on his miniscule fingers.

"Well, first of all, you absolutely _suck_ at transfiguration. Second, transfiguring your mug, would be on the scale of capital murder to you, because it would waste precious coffee…"

"And three, you would just dodge out of the way, and exact some horrible revenge at a later date," Shawn grumbled, as he took yet another sip, scowling into his mug.

"HE CAN BE TAUGHT!" Puck cackled, as a mortarboard (those flat hats you wear when you graduate from collage) and diploma appeared on Shawn's head and in his unoccupied hand. Shawn groaned, and took a deep drink of his coffee. 'It's gonna be one of those days,' he thought resignedly, ignoring the sprite now using the tassel on his hat as a bungee cord.

Back at the group's table, Ron snickered. "Bloody hell, I'm glad I'm not in that bloke's shoes!" Hermione elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Ron, don't swear!" she admonished. Harry looked over at Draco. The boy was barely conscious, his head supported by one hand.

"You alright there Malfoy?" he asked. Draco looked up from his breakfast and _glared_ at Harry.

"Sod _off_ Potter," he snapped, going back to his usual tone of voice whenever he had spoken to Harry in the past for a moment. Kainda scowled at Draco, and nudged him none to gently with her elbow. Draco just grunted, and glared at her.

"Be nice," she warned him. Harry scoffed mentally. 'Nice and Draco Malfoy, are mutually exclusive terms,' he thought as he dug into his food. Draco leaned forward slightly, and looked Harry in the eye.

"Potter, did you have any sort of…odd dreams last night?" Ron cut in then, looking somewhat peeved.

"Wait a moment there Malfoy, what's with the sudden change in attitude?" he asked suspiciously. Draco glared at the boy.

"None of your concern Weasley," he ground out from between clenched teeth. It was obvious that he was straining to reign in a temper that was frayed from lack of sleep.

Harry looked back at Draco.

"Define 'odd' Malfoy." Draco's gaze darkened, and he sat back in his chair.

"Never mind Potter," was the last thing he said, before dropping into a brooding silence, much like the one Harry was prone to on occasion.

There was the usual flutter of wings as the daily mail came. Hedwig had nothing for Harry, as usual, but she stopped by for a piece of bacon. As she nibbled the morsel, Harry quickly attached the letter to her leg, and gently whispered, "This is for Snuffles," to her. He knew that she knew who he meant.

As his owl took off, Harry felt eyes on his back. He turned to see who was looking at him, and found himself locking eyes with Cho Chang across the room. The girl seemed to have a calculating look in her eye, one that reminded Harry of the face Dudley made when he was eyeing an expensive new toy, and trying to decide which way would be best to acquire it with the minimum amount of effort on his part.

Harry felt a momentary chill go down his spine, and he found himself asking why the girl he had made a fool of himself in front of last year, just to ask to the Yule Ball, the girl he had been mooning over for the past three _years_, was suddenly looking so… intimidating. Suddenly he felt his shoulder being shaken, and he turned away from that calculating gaze, to find Ginny.

"Harry, come on, if you don't leave soon, you'll be late for CoMC." Harry gave her a shaky smile, and a soft, "Thanks Gin," before getting out of his chair. Ginny flushed slightly, before turning to run towards her Divination class. Harry shook his head to clear it of cobwebs, and marched off to Care of Magical Creatures.

Hermione was worrying her lip nervously as the two classes marched out to Hagrid's hut. When they arrived, it was to find a joyously beaming Hagrid. Harry felt his stomach do several unpleasant acrobatics, before tying itself into a firm knot of worry. Ron looked almost ill, and even the Slytherins were looking decidedly uneasy as they took in the look on Hagrid's face. The last time Harry had seen him this happy, he was illegally hatching Norbert, a venomous, fire-breathing dragon. "This does _not_ bode well," Hermione said, voicing the entire groups concerns.

"Gather 'roun all, I've got great news!" Hagrid announced, with all the joy and fervor of a man who was announcing that Christmas, not extremely dangerous, fire-breathing dragons raised by who a man who was not quite sane, was coming.

The students warily gathered around the half giant, both houses keeping their distances, as always. "As you all prob'ly know, we 'ave the un'spected pleasure, of playin host to a group of highly trained dragons."

Several Slytherins rolled their eyes, while in the background, Blaise made a comment about blind abominations. Hagrid pointedly ignored these antics, while quite a few Gryffindors shot venomous looks at Blaise's little clique.

"Now the best thing abou' Mr. O'Reily's dragons is tha'-"

The group never did get to find out what exactly the best thing about Shawn's dragons was, because a gout of fire streamed from the mouth of the den, followed by a roar of rage. Following that was a small silence, punctuated by a pathetic sounding whimper.

Lavender Brown made a funny noise in the back of her throat- a strange combination of "eep!" and "gah!"

A moment later a large sulfurous yellow colored dragon shot from the den like a bullet. He was set low to the ground, with the bent legs of a lizard, and spikes seemed to be his main feature. He had spikes growing from almost every part of his back and sides, along with an impressive array studding the part of his head above his eyes, and a vicious cluster at the end of his long tail. Even his wings had spikes studding the leading edges. His eyes were a warm brown.

They were also filled with shear terror.

"**_GANGWAY!"_** he roared. It was strangely muffled, as if he had cotton balls in his mouth. Of course, the students only heard him give a powerful roar. At least, most of the students did. Harry and Draco exchanged looks, before bolting. Ron, strangely enough, put one finger into his ear and wiggled it for a moment, before realizing that the frightened beast was heading his way. He tried to make a run for it, but he was too late. The dragon was practically on top of him, looking just as frantic as he felt.

"YAHHHHH!" Ron shouted, trying to dodge out of the way. All of a sudden, the dragon leapt completely over him, missing him by such a small margin that he could feel his hair flip up from the wind generated. Ron had to practically scrape his jaw off of the ground as he realized what was going on. The dragon was making a bee-line for the Forbidden Forest, and making some damn good time at that. Ron looked… well, if you had looked up the definition of 'gobsmacked', you'd find his picture next to it. At least, you would if 'gobsmacked' was actually a word.

Then the reason the yellow dragon was in such a hurry appeared. It was another dragon, a lithe, slender creature. She, for it was obviously a female dragon, was colored in various shades of red, with patches of orange and yellow along her back and the leading edges of her wings, while her under-belly was a light blue in color. Along her back was a series of fins that looked almost like… flames. Her eyes were the same color as the yellow dragon's, but were filled with a murderous rage. The air around her seemed to shimmer, and a wave of heat hit the students, like someone had opened an enormous oven. She loosed an impressive bellow, and charged after the yellow dragon. Hagrid stepped in her path, seeming to think that he could stop this seeming rampage all by himself.

At that moment there was a cry like that of a huge bird of prey, and a winged shadow fell over the class, before a new dragon landed heavily in front of the red one.

The newcomer was the gray of a stormy sky, with a strong, slim body, and massive wings. Instead of its forearms and wings being separate, the two were combined, like a bats wing, with the dragon's "forepaws" being a set of three claws on each wing joint. Its movements on the ground were slightly jerky, as it shuffled about, balancing precariously on its strong back legs. Its tail was long, tapering into a spade shaped barb, and its back was lined with small, evenly spaced lumpy ridges. It's head was fearsome, with a strong, slightly jutting jaw, which had a tooth poking out here and there, and two stubby horns topped the tapered head. Its eyes however, were a warm hazel, with a gentleness the belied the fierce exterior.

She made a funny snorting sound, which sounded almost like a mother admonishing a child. The red dragon bared her teeth and growled in the back of throat, sounding like a person who was gargling shards of glass while trying to fight off a Lethifold.

The gray merely raised an eyebrow. Or, the muscle that an eyebrow would be had she been a human. The red looked a tad bashful now, and skulked back into the cave.

"Harry, did… did that yellow dragon before, did he…?" Ron stuttered, finally regaining his ability to speak.

"Did he _what?_"

Ron shook his head. "Never mind. I could have sworn… no, it's stupid. Never mind."

Hermione frowned, and cast a look at Harry, but he was too busy looking at the dragons to notice, exchanging knowledgeable looks with Malfoy.

She blinked, unable to shake the feeling that there was a very important piece of information she was missing, like trying to build Hogwarts castle out of legos without directions, or making sense of a sentence without vowels.

She didn't like the feeling at all, and resolved to hole herself up in the library later until she found some answers.

Hagrid looked extremely flustered. "Righ'… well, I'll jus' go 'n… 'n get 'im, then…" he muttered, trundling into the Forest after the yellow dragon.

Blaise Zabini rolled his eyes. "The great oaf, can't even control his own beasts…"

"Hey Zabini, how about a little less talk and a little more shut the hell up?" Harry snapped, clenching his fist tightly around his wand.

"What's the matter, Potter? Strike a nerve, did I?"

Harry's knuckles turned white and his teeth ground together, but he managed to keep his temper.

Barely.

"What, can't even come up with a retort? I thought you were at least capable of _that,_ Potter."

"Just ignore him." Hermione murmured to him.

Blaise laughed.

"Potter's got to take orders from a Mudblood!" he cackled with glee.

That was the last thing he got out before Ron tackled him. They rolled on the ground, punching, kicking, and swearing rather loudly. It took Harry, Dean and Seamus to pull Ron off of the Slytherin boy.

Draco just shook his head at the idiocy of it while pinching the bridge of his nose- he had a migraine, and his nose was getting all stuffy. The world was clearly out to get him.

Hagrid did not return before the period ended, and the trio reluctantly headed back to the castle for Charms. Draco trailed them by about fifteen feet until they got to the main building, when he took the stairs for Arithmancy.

'After Arithmancy is lunch…' he reminded himself, and resolved to go to the hospital wing for a Pepper-Up Potion. While he wasn't fond of smoke pouring out his ears, the option of going through the rest of the day feeling the way he did made the choice rather simple.

Draco liked Arithmancy. He was good at it; and it had practical applications that were extremely beneficial- it could be used to analyze strengths and weaknesses, overcome obstacles, and predict the future. When he walked into the classroom, however, he found himself wishing that he was somewhere- _anywhere- _else.

There were only two free desks left. One was next to Pansy Parkinson, and the other was adjacent to… Ginny Weasley.

He restrained himself from taking out his wand and cursing himself, but only just. Why was she here? 'She has advanced classes, you nitwit!' said a little voice in the back of his head that sounded remarkably like Snape.

Oh. That.

He took a desperate glance at Pansy, who was writing "Mrs. Pansy Zabini" in her notebook and surrounding it in hearts. Parts on the inside of his head screamed at other parts. He shuddered, and took the lesser of the two evils.

"You okay, Malfoy? You don't look so good." Ginny said, leaning over.

"Leave me alone, Weasley, I'm fine." He muttered, sneezing to illustrate his point.

Ginny couldn't help it. It was reflex to say it. "God bless you."

"God _damn _you."

She opened her mouth to retort, but Professor Vector chose that moment to walk in, leaving her silent.

"Good morning, class- it's nice to see you again! If you'll notice, we have a newcomer this year- Ginny Weasley, who is with us because of her high marks last term."

A few people clapped uncomfortably, others waved, and a good number of Slytherins glared angrily. Ginny's ears turned bright red.

Professor Vector cleared her throat.

"Alright, the work will be a bit harder this year, to prepare you for O.W.L.s, but it's nothing you can't handle. Anyway. There are three types of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't."

"That's not three, I can count!" Pansy Parkinson said, almost defensively.

"Ah, but you have no sense of humor." Vector said, grinning. "Anyway, as I trust you all are in the counting group, we won't be using our letter charts this year- you should be able to do it in your heads by now. Today you'll write a paragraph on yourself using hidden kinships. For example, 'My name is Josephine Vector, I am a four. I will be married on either the 4th, 13th, or 22nd of April to Matthew Broderick. We will live in Venice. My breakfast food is corn flakes…' and so on. I want at least seven inches of parchment, due on Thursday. You may begin."

Ginny bit her lip. Not five minutes into class, and she already had a problem- one that had carried over from the year before. Should she say, when calculating, that her name was Ginny, or Ginevra? She felt results were more accurate with 'Ginny,' but it wasn't her real name. She decided that it didn't matter- one problem solved.

Now… what the hell was a hidden kinship? She considered her options, and then poked Malfoy with her quill.

"What do you want, Weasley?" he asked irritably.

"Well… I need help."

He dropped his quill in surprise. "Huh?" he asked intelligently.

"I don't know what she means- we didn't get this far last year, I'm lost." She explained.

"Alright. So let's start at the beginning, then."

He took out a spare bit of parchment, and wrote this on it:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

A BC DE FG H I

J K LM NO PQR

S TU VWXY Z

She frowned. "I'm not an idiot, Malfoy, I know that bit. Takes the letters of my name, add them, reduce them, blah blah blah… I'm a six. What I don't get is this hidden kinship stuff she's on about."

He ran a hand through his hair, attempting to tidy it. "Look, any name or word can be converted to a number, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, you can reveal hidden kinships among people, places, and things by using arithmancy- the theory being that words and names that share the same numerical value are related and naturally go together. For instance, since I'm a five, I should live in a city like Pittsburgh or Tokyo, which reduce to five, and should do important things on the 5th, 14th, and 23rd. Preferably of June. Understand?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now leave me alone."

So she did. She worked hard for the rest of the period, but didn't get very far, partly because doing the math in hr head was difficult, partly because most of the things she tried didn't come out to six, and partly because Draco would have a coughing fit or start sneezing every few minutes. Finally, after what seemed like a billion years, the bell rang.

She sighed with relief, gathered her things, and practically ran towards the Great Hall. She paused, however, when she saw Draco diverge from the group.

Curse her politeness. "Oy, Malfoy! Where're you off to?"

"Hospital wing." He muttered.

She bit her lip. "Want me to save you a seat in the Great Hall?"

His gray eyes flickered up at her. "Huh?"

"You know… because of the tables… and you could… never mind, it was a stupid question." She stuttered, turning heel.

"Yeah, I'll see you downstairs, then." He said to her retreating back, just loud enough to hear, before walking away. She rolled her eyes.

"Gosh, Gin, thanks for being so thoughtful, I really appreciate it…" she mimicked to the air, rolling her eyes.

When she finally got to the Great Hall, she found Ron and Hermione squabbling over something fairly trivial at their now usual table, with Harry watching them over his turkey-pickle sandwich. She was pleased to see that Kainda Zabini was joining them, too. She liked Kainda- she was snarky.

"I was only trying to help you, Ron!" Hermione was saying angrily as she buttered her roll with a tad bit more force than was really necessary.

"You don't have to baby me, I can figure things out for myself!" he shouted back.

Ginny rolled her eyes as she sat down, grabbing a ham and cheese sandwich from the platter as she did so. Kainda leaned over to speak to her over Hermione's yelling.

"Are they like this a lot?"

She shared a grin with Harry. "Only always."

Ron said something ridiculously jerky that Ginny didn't quite catch, and Hermione stood up quickly, told them she would be spending their free period in the library, and stalked off.

Ron's head hit the table with a loud **thunk**.

"Harry, mate, do me a favor?"

"Yeah?

Ron, forehead still down on the table, held out a fork to his friend. "Could you take this and just… stab it through my forehead?"

"Not if you keep you head on the table like that I can't."

Ron looked up and glared. "Yeah, not the response I really wanted."

"If it makes you feel better, Weasley, I'd be tickled pink to lobotomize you with a kitchen utensil." Draco drawled as he sat down, smoke from the potion pouring out his ears. Everyone glared. "… which of course I won't do, because it would violate the contract."

"Tell me, Malfoy, do you always go where you aren't invited and just insult people?" Ron asked, his tone angry. Harry leaned forward in case of conflict, but Draco merely shrugged it off.

"Oh, but I _was_ invited."

"This stupid truce doesn't mean-" Ron started, but Draco interrupted.

"You little sister, Weasley, offered me a seat. I assumed she spoke for the group, or is it only one of you lot-" he waved his hand at Harry and Ron vaguely, "that are allowed to make those sort of choices?"

"Shut up, Draco." Kainda grumbled into her corned beef. "Just drop it."

"No, I'm genuinely interested. I mean-"

He was cut short by Ginny forcefully slamming her sandwich down on her plate and stalking away from the table.

Ron glared at him, and Kainda yanked on his sleeve, pulling his ear close to her face to have a little private conversation.

"I don't know who you're trying to impress Draco, but if it's her, you certainly-"

"I am NOT trying to-" he tried to interject, but she simply wouldn't let him.

"Yeah, right. The point you're trying to make? Well, you're making the same mistakes that he is. Just shut up, okay?"

She let go of his sleeve, got up from the table and went after Ginny, leaving the guys to stare at each other. After a few moments of tense silence, Draco decided retreat was best, and he also left the Great Hall.

This time it was Harry's forehead to hit the table.

"I just wish this day would end…"

Ginny was wishing the exact same thing as she stepped out into the sunlight, went down the steps and began to make her way to the lake.

She jumped, startled, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun to face her assailant, but it was only Kainda, which was fortunate for the both of them, as Ginny was on a very short fuse, and had her wand out and drawn before you could say 'whack a mole'.

Kainda raised her hands in a non threatening way. "Hey, chill, it's me."

Ginny exhaled and lowered her wand. "Sorry. I was kind of wishing that someone would jump me from behind so that I could beat the living crap out of them."

Kainda gave her a pitying look. "You alright?"

Ginny sighed and sat down in the grass.

"Nothing I'm not used to. I mean, they're the Dream Team. Hermione's the brains of the operation, Harry's the brawn and Ron's the heart. And I'm…"

"Way too cool for those losers?" Kainda suggested, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Hermione excluded, of course." She amended, as an afterthought.

Ginny cracked a smile. "Speaking of which, let's go find her."

"Who, Hermione?"

"No, your Auntie Grizelda. Of course Hermione, you nit."

Kainda very quickly decided that she liked Ginny quite a bit. She was snarky.

Our two favorite Gryffindor boys also happened to be discussing Hermione at that moment. Or rather, Harry was talking and Ron was attempting to tune him out.

"I mean, Ron, would it kill you to, I dunno, apologize or something?"

"It might."

Had Hermione been there, she would have admonished Ron for his misuse of the English language- that he should have said 'may' and not 'might' as you're only supposed to use might when saying that something might have been, to which he'd get mad about her micro-management and general flipping out when he said something like "It won't hurt nobody" or "Harry and me are going to play Quidditch," to which she'd reply that she only corrected them because they were fifteen, for God's sakes, and that's atrocious, and the whole thing would have escalated from there.

Hermione was NOT there, however, and Ron's slip went unnoticed.

"Ron, seriously. How does this help? This gets you nowhere. So either stop being so… arguable… or get over your crush."

"It ISN'T a crush, it's-"

"Obsession?"

Ron made angry squeezing motions with his hands, pretending Harry's neck was between them. Harry took this as a signal to hide behind something, which was lucky, as Ron started to chase him a second after.

The girls, on the other hand, were acting a little more civilized, partly because they were in the library and running in there was a very good way to get detention, but mostly because they were girls, and of course, not mad at each other.

Which is not to say that they weren't mad, of course. Luckily for the object of their scorn, who happened to go by the name of Ron Weasley, they were on opposite sides of the school.

"He's just… he's so…" Hermione grumbled, for once at a loss for words. "I just was to take him and just… nyyyyyyyagh!" She continued, choking an invisible Ron, unaware that he was making the same motions in Gryffindor Tower at that exact moment.

What all the students were unaware of is that at the same time, a rather interesting scene was taking place in The Lair, as the older students were already calling it. (The older Slytherins were also threatening to throw younger students in, just to "see how many pieces flew out again")

"GOD DAMMIT!" Shawn roared, gesturing wildly with his arms as he paced in front of a dragon line-up. Max and Reno just looked at each other from their places on opposite ends of the line, and rolled their eyes. They were a bit peeved about being called back from patrol because of someone else's stupidity, and having to listen to their friend and caretaker rant just added to the joy of the occasion.

"You guys are supposed to be a team of trained dragons, able to work together like clockwork! Do you have any idea the amount of fast talking I had to do with Dumbledore to convince him that his students weren't in any danger! The man may be one of the greatest wizards of this century, but he's paranoid about student safety! And Umbridge! I was _this _close," he held up his thumb and forefinger and pressed them together tightly in an "ok" sign, "to just taking down a shotgun and blowing her head of if she said the word "regulations" one more time!"

Golem, the only dragon not in the lineup, snorted from his leaning position against a far wall.

"**_You'd have been doin' the world a favor getting rid of that fat piece of shit_**," the rock dragon grumbled. "**_I can pratically _smell_ the contempt coming offa her, for us, most of the students, and pretty much anything else she lays her beady liddle eyes on._**" Shawn shook his head and gave a weary grin as he looked at his partner.

"Please, don't tempt me." The he rounded on the yellow and red dragons, both of whom had been trying to sink into the ground. When he spoke, his voice was calm and controlled. He was a powder keg waiting to go off.

"Now Rai, Elena; could you please explain to me **_WHAT THE HELL SET THAT DISPLAY OF MATURITY OFF?_**" And the eruption commenced.

Rai, the yellow dragon, shifted guiltily, small sparks jumping from spike to spike along his back showing his agitation. Elena, his sister, gulped lightly. Shawn crossed his arms and began to tap his foot impatiently, scowling severly.

"**_In my defense, I'd just like to say...SHE STARTED IT!_**" Rai exclaimed, pointing at his sister. Elena gasped in indignation.

"**_Hey, you were the one that stole my cookies you overgrown...oops_**"

The dragons began to back away from Shawn, who had suddenly developed a tic in his right eye. "You guys mean... that we almost got deported... over **_COOKIES_**?" he roared.

"**_Well... they _were _death by chocolate, with white chocolate chunks_**," The storm gray dragon put in. Shawn groaned and held his face in his hands. The water dragon turned to look at the flyer.

"**_I don't think you're helping matters Aeris_**," she deadpanned.

"**_Just playing devils advocate for a change Amph_**," the flyer snorted, giving a draconian grin. Shawn groaned again and walked over to one of the walls. He began to beat his head against it, cackling insanely. Golem shuffled up behind him, and gently patted his shoulder.

"**_That's right Shawn, let it all out_**."

Shawn just banged his head harder.

Later-

With various grumblings and a small issue of Hermione going out of her way to sit so that Harry was between Ron and herself, the Gryffindors settled themselves into History of Magic and awaited the only interesting part of the lesson, when Professor Binns would float through the blackboard into the room to begin the lesson.

Professor Binns never came. Instead, a pretty witch with dark hair and pince-nez walked into the room, giving them a smile. "Hi, I'm Professor Monkshood, and I'm your new History of Magic Professor." She informed them, causing quite a commotion. Some hooted and hollered, some shrugged apathetically, others sat there, not knowing what to think. She waved her hands in a gesture for silence.

"Having had Professor Binns myself, I can pretty confidently say that HoM will be a bit different this year. I expect you to learn something, and not just the difference between Uric the Oddball and Emeric the Evil. Will we learn that stuff? Yes, we will. But this is so much more! Giant wars, political scandals, rebellions! This is some nifty stuff, guys! History is now- we'll cover current events as much as anything. But above all else, I want you to come out of this class having learned something.

"The history of magic, my little Gryffindors, is everything! Past, present, future, peace, war, chaos, order, air, fire, water, love, hate, sex, death, time, space and God! And we're going to learn about all of them."

There was more ruckus at her pronouncement. Hermione tentatively raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Professor Monkshood asked, not looking at her seating chart. Hermione seemed taken aback for a moment, but regained her composure.

"This sounds wonderful, Professor, but, if you don't mind my asking, what happened to Professor Binns?"

She chuckled a little. "History of Magic O.W.L. scores hit an all-time low last year- Headmaster Dumbledore decided that it was time someone breathed some life into this class." She paused to wait for someone to pick up on her pun, but no one did, so she moved on. "And one more thing- while I expect you to call me Professor outside of class, I'd prefer if, in here, you called me Sam. It promotes a conversational environment, which is what we'll have. History is active, and so this class will be, too."

She leaned over, and grabbed something that was behind her desk- a Quaffle. She threw it at Ron, who caught it, looking surprised.

"What can you tell me about magical history, Mister Weasley?" she asked, again neglecting to use her seating chart.

Ron's ears turned red. "I- uh… I, I don't really know… know any… any, that is…"

"Mister Weasley, why do we use Snitches in Quidditch?"

The tension left his face, and a smile replaced it. "In 1269, the Chief of the Wizard's Council, Barberus Bragge, let a live Snidget bird loose in the Quidditch stadium and offered 150 Galleons- which was a lot back then- to the player who could catch it."

Sam grinned. "I thought you didn't know any history, Mister Weasley?"

"But- but- Quidditch counts?" he asked timidly. She actually laughed.

"Of course it counts! How different do you think the wizarding world would be without Quidditch?"

There was a murmur of agreement throughout the classroom.

"See, this is what I'm talking about, guys. History isn't just facts and dates- it's today, it's a part of life, it's what you ate for dinner last night. The smallest catalyst can have mind-boggling chain reactions. A bunch of young wizards mess around with their brooms on Queerditch Marsh one day, a few goblins decide that they don't like a certain law, a group of kids in Liverpool decide to start a band, some witch wonders what would happen if you added a few different potions ingredients together, and bang! The world changes."

Seamus Finnegan raised his hand. "Just how many goblin rebellions have there been, anyway?"

Sam bit her lip. "Let's see… there were eight really major ones, but goblins are just about always complaining about something or another. They get nothing done without a revolution. Examples: 1) 'The cafeteria won't give free tartar sauce on fish days!' 'Revolution!' 2) 'We don't want to be under oppressive thumbs! Let us all lop off some royal heads!' 3) 'I want dinner but mum says it isn't ready yet!' 'Let's go burn Paris!' "

The class chuckled. She smiled at all of them, glanced at her watch, turned back, did a double take, and composed herself.

"Alright guys. It's been fun, but it's just about time for you to leave. Homework tonight if to write me at least five inches about an event in history that interests you, to be handed in next time we meet. I don't care what it is- just choose something you're passionate about. You may blaspheme, or curse, or complain about this homework, but preferably not to my face, as that would hurt my feelings. There's like, three seconds left in class, so you can just chill."

The class began to talk amongst themselves about the newest teacher. Ron turned to Harry, a big grin on his face. "You know mate, I think this year is really starting to look up!"

Harry couldn't help but agree with him.

To Be Continued

Well guys, all I can say is that I'll be back.

Until then..._ Anchors away my boys, anchors away_...

Review replies

batchick of DOOM: Heh, thanks.

Andivari: I truely loved writing those scenes. I think comedy is just an integral part of me, and no matter what happens to me, I'll always be able to crack a joke (no matter how bad) or make light of a situation (no matter how grim). Till next time man, keep cool.

ProfessorSpork: ... What can I say? You've been a great friend and a terrific co-author and beta. Keep cool while I'm gone girl, it looks like it's gonna be a schorcher this summer.

Raliena: Brilliant... keh, not an adjective often applied to me. So, are you sufficiently surprised?


	8. Duly Noted

Well all, I'm sorry to say that this is not a chapter, and that this fic, as it is, is discontinued. I've taken a long look at what I've got and where I've been going with this and I've concluded that it's not as good a direction as originally thought. So I've gone back to the drawing board and completely reworked the idea. The dragons, Shawn, Tomahawk and the rest of the introduced characters will be present in this new incarnation, though not all as originally portrayed. So please bear with me as I attempt to wrangle this new idea into place.


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